Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone. We're gonna start with the Pledge of Allegiance, then we will have Commissioner Tara Waters bring an invocation. So all stand, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If you would kindly remain standing, I'm going to offer an invocation if you would like. Please worship in the manner that you choose fit, I'm going to pray, or you may take a moment of silence or reflection. Dear Lord, we are so grateful to stand in this chamber today after a joyous celebration of our independence as a nation, 250 years is an amazing milestone for a country that is built on diversity and so many who have come together to make this the greatest land on earth. We are just so grateful to be able to gather here to make decisions on behalf of Wake County residents. that will be for the betterment of our community. We thank you for the time that we have today and we pray for wisdom, we pray for courage, and we pray for strength to do what is right for all of our neighbors who are here today and we thank you for the opportunity to lift up so many important recognitions this afternoon and we are so grateful for all the good and prosperous things that are happening in our community that draw 66 people here each day and we do acknowledge how wonderful it is to continue to live in the land

the free and the home of the brave in Jesus name we pray amen good afternoon everyone and welcome to today's meeting before We consider the approval of the public's agenda. I need to make a motion for the board to approve adding a resolution honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Prezella Robinson, the eighth president of St. Augustine University, who recently passed at the age of 105. So do I hear a second? I'll second that. okay i've been motion made by myself and second by commissioner thomas all in favor please say aye aye aye all opposed please say no not hearing any the motion carries thank you Okay, and we got through that. We'll begin today's meeting with, first of all, we need to take another vote on the approval of the agenda.

I move approval of the agenda.

Okay.

I get that.

And I must add another comment there, wit, because that was a change there on the agenda with the amendment.

I move approval of the agenda with the amendment for the resolution.

Thank you. Commissioner Thomas, second?

I'll second that.

Second by Commissioner Waters. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please say no. Not hearing any, the motion carries. Okay, next we will have the approval of the minutes for our regular meeting of June 1st, 2026. Is there a motion to approve

I move approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of June 1st, 2026. I'll second that.

We have a motion by Commissioner Stallings and a second by Commissioner Evans. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please say nay. Not hearing any, the motion carries. And now we will have a proclamation, EMS's 50th anniversary. Commissioner Vicki Adamson will be presenting, and it will be accepted by Darrell Alford and John Sternette. Thank you. Thank you.

Good afternoon, commissioners. I'm here to present a proclamation for Wake County Board of Commissioners. recognizing July 15th is the 50th anniversary as Wake County EMS. And by the way, when they started in 1976, I was in high school. So it doesn't feel like that long ago. Whereas Wake County EMS is a vital component of the community and the public safety system, working closely with local hospitals, fire departments, law enforcement agencies, emergency communication centers, and community organizations to provide compassion, and clinically excellent care during times of crisis. And whereas the professionals of Wake County EMS dedicate thousands of hours to specialized training and continuing education, ensuring that we are prepared to provide the highest quality life-saving care to residents and visitors in Wake County 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And whereas, since it was established in 1976, were you born in 1976?

I figured you weren't.

Just had to ask, just had to ask. Wake County EMS has grown and evolved to serve the needs of one of the fastest growing communities in the nation. Emerging as a nationally recognized industry leader in emergency medicine and out of hospital care. And whereas the information of Wake County EMS marked a transition The formation of Wake County EMS marked a transition from the historic model of volunteer rescue squads and private ambulance services to a coordinated modern emergency medical services system. Whereas the five decades, the dedicated paramedics, EMTs, and support staff of Wake County EMS have answered the call in moments of greatest need, demonstrating professionalism, compassion, and unwavering commitment to public service. Whereas, as Wake County EMS celebrates this milestone, this organization continues to build upon its legacy of innovation, service, and leadership to prepare for the challenges and opportunities of the next 50 years. Therefore, let it be resolved that the Wake County Board of Commissioners does here does hereby proclamain July 15th as the 50th anniversary of Wake County EMS and urges the residents of our community and communities across the county to celebrate the dedication of our frontline EMS practitioners in this momentous anniversary. Adopted the sixth day of July, 2026, signed Chair Don Mile. So moved.

Thank you, Commissioner Adamson, for that motion. Is there a second?

I second it.

I've been properly seconded by Commissioner Starlin. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, please say nay. Not hearing any, motion carries.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Adamson, and we really appreciate the opportunity to be recognized on our 50th year this year, and I especially want to recognize some folks that are in the audience. We have some former employees and retirees who were able to come out today to see this 50th anniversary celebration, so thank you very much for making the trip to Raleigh and seeing this proclamation and then some staff we have on hand today. We've really appreciated the support of the Wake County Board of Commissioners over these 50 years to create what we consider one of the best EMS systems in the country. So thank you very much for that support. And that has taken 50 years to achieve and realize. And we will continue that work forward. We have the future of EMS coming soon to Wake County. We have a class starting in July of 30 new employees that represent the future of our organization. And so thank you for supporting them at the beginning of their career as well. So thank you very much for this opportunity today. We appreciate your longstanding support and look forward to serving our community with clinical excellence and compassionate care for at least another 50 years. years.

Thank you John and thank you staff.

And Commissioner Adamson asked me to point out also Stryker, who's back here today, who overshadows everybody where he goes, who is one of two of our therapy dogs that we have to support our staff and others in the county if they may need it. So thanks for coming also, Stryker and his handler, Will. Awesome, thank you. Thank you very much.

And next, we have another proclamation. It's Parks and Rec Open Space Fifth Anniversary. Board of Commissioners, Vice Chair Jackson will be reading the proclamation. And, of course, it will be accepted by Chris Snow, Director, Sam Trogdon, Assistant Director of Parks and Rec and Open Space.

All right. Thank you, Commissioners. Good afternoon. Welcome, welcome. There was a lot of exciting things happening 50 years ago, clearly. And I want to just start by sharing the very first thing that I fell in love with in Wake County was the green tops and the trails. So it is an honor to be here to read and provide this proclamation recognizing July as Parks, Recreation and Open Space 50 year anniversary. Whereas parks and recreation is an integral part of communities throughout our country, including Wake County, and whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of all people, And whereas parks and recreation promotes time spent in nature with positivity impacting mental health and increasing cognitive performance and well-being and alleviating illness such as depression, attention deficit disorders, and Alzheimer's. And whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by promoting space for popular activities like hiking and biking, disc golf, mountain biking, and many other activities designated to promote active lifestyles. And whereas parks and recreation educational activities including environmental, historical, and cultural programming are critical to childhood development and sense of place. And whereas parks and recreation increase a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, and the attraction and attention of businesses and crime reduction. And whereas parks and recreation is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our communities resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change. And whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and create outdoors. And whereas Wake County began its parks and recreation efforts in 1976 and is celebrating these efforts throughout the year. And whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month, Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wake County Board of Commissioners does hereby proclaim July as Parks and Recreation and Open Space 50th anniversary in Wake County, North Carolina. So moved. I'm happy to second that.

Okay, we have a motion by Vice Chair Sophia Jackson, second by Commissioner Thomas. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please say nay. Not hearing any, the motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I left the official copy up there, but we'll make sure we get it. Thanks.

We do have members of our OSIPAC committee and parks team here, so I'd like to invite them down as well at this point as I give remarks. Okay, that's fine. Thanks. On behalf of Wake County Parks, thank you, Vice Chair Jackson. Chair, Commissioners, thank you not only for today's proclamation, but for your continued support and investment in Wake County Parks for the last 50 years. This July, we have two special reasons to celebrate, National Park and Recreation Month and the 50th anniversary of Wake County Parks. Since our founding in 1976, Wake County Parks has grown from a bold vision into a thriving system of 12 parks and preserves and growing. Today, our parks are more popular than ever. In the past year, and for the first time in our history, we welcomed more than 2 million visitors to our parks. That success is made possible by an extraordinary team of volunteers and staff represented by the people beside of me. Our staff are among the most dedicated professionals you will ever find. Every day they protect natural resources and create places where everyone is welcome. Together, we have protected more than 10,000 acres of open space, ensuring these natural resources remain available for future generations. We provide safe, clean, and accessible opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy the outdoors. Whether it's attending an educational program, hiking, boating, mountain biking, fishing, disc golf, gardening, picnicking, nature exploration, or simply just spending time with your family, our parks truly provide something for everyone. Perhaps the greatest measure of our success comes from the people we serve. One visitor recently shared, Overall, I think the parks run by WakeGov Parks are the best in the Triangle. They're all amazing spaces with multiple things to do at every location. They are cared for, the staff are amazing, and their program offerings are top notch. For 50 years, Wake County Parks has been the backdrop for countless memories. Birthday parties, family reunions, school field trips, engagements, and quiet moments in nature. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, we invite everyone to visit a park, try a new program, volunteer with us, and continue making memories. To learn more about our year-long celebration, you can visit wake.gov slash parks50. Thank you again for this recognition and your continued commitment and support of Wake County Parks. Thank you.

And next, we will have another proclamation, and that will be read by Commissioner Terrell Waters, and it will be accepted by Tony Hall, Phillip Woodridge, Van McLean, and Laura Steed.

Thank you, Chair Miles. I am honored to be able to share this proclamation as members of the disability community join me up front as well as advocates. It's always good to see all of our neighbors are represented in the chamber. really honored to read this, recognizing the 36th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Whereas on July 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, establishing a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities and ensuring their civil rights, and whereas July 20, 6-2026 marks the 36th anniversary of the ADA, a landmark civil rights law that has expanded opportunities for Americans with disabilities by reducing barriers, changing perceptions, and increasing participation in community life. And whereas in Wake County, North Carolina, approximately 9% of the population, or roughly 110,000 residents, live with a disability, according to data from the US Census Bureau, And whereas the Census Bureau further reports that approximately 6.3% of Wake County residents under the age of 65 have a disability, And whereas despite significant progress since the passage of the ADA, barriers to employment, transportation, housing, healthcare, education, and community participation continue to affect many individuals with disabilities. And whereas in 2024, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities was 7.5% compared to 3.8% for people without disabilities. demonstrating the continued need for equal opportunity and accessibility. Whereas Wake County is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion and accessibility by ensuring equal opportunities for all residents to live, work, learn, and participate fully in community life while supporting the rights, independence, and dignity of individuals with disabilities, and whereas the anniversary of the ADA provides an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of people with disabilities, recognize the progress made since the law's enactment, and reaffirm our commitment to advancing accessibility, inclusion, and equal opportunity for all. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Wake County Board of Commissioners hereby recognizes and celebrates the 36th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and encourages all residents to honor the contributions of individuals with disabilities, reflect on the progress achieved through the ADA, and recommit to the ongoing work of ensuring full inclusion, accessibility, and equal opportunity for all. Adopted this sixth day of July, 2026. And Chairman, that is my motion.

Thank you, Commissioner Waters, for that motion. Is there a second?

I'm happy to second that motion.

Okay, then properly motion made and seconded by Commissioner Stallings. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, please say no. Not hearing any, the motion carries.

Well, thank you so much. And I do want to pass the mic to Mr. Phillip Woodard, who is going to give some remarks, and we'll also hear some remarks from L'Arche NC.

Awesome, thank you.

Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes. I'm Phillip Woodward. I'm a system change manager at the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities, and I'm also the secretary for the Raleigh Commission for Persons with Disabilities, and I'm joined by many members of our disability community today. I have been involved in many opportunities to issue an Americans with Disabilities Act proclamation from the state of North Carolina and the city of Raleigh. It delights me to be here today to receive an ADA proclamation from Wake County and its Board of Commissioners. I appreciate Lawrence Carter inviting us to participate in this opportunity and Commissioner Terrell Waters' interest in people with disabilities. I myself have lived with a disability for 43 years. I was diagnosed with a severe to profound bilateral sensory neural hearing loss at age four. The ADA has made life immensely better for me, and I started seeing the benefits not long after it was signed in 1990. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC, estimates that approximately 32% of North Carolina residents have a disability of some type. either physical, mental, sensory, intellectual, developmental, or some other type. That is about one third of our population. Disability is a natural part of human life and recognizing and celebrating the ADA. will help people of all abilities prosper and participate fully in loving, working in, playing in, and visiting Wake County. Thank you very much to all of the commissioners today. Thank you.

Good afternoon and thank you to Commissioner Waters and the entire Board of Commissioners for recognizing the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. On behalf of L'Arche North Carolina, a community of adults with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities who share life together and friendship and belonging, thank you for not only this recognition but your commitment to a more accessible and inclusive county. I'm honored to be joined this afternoon by some of our Corps members and assistants whose lives and gifts enrich our community every day. Again, on behalf of L'Arche North Carolina, thank you for this proclamation and for affirming the importance of building communities where every person is welcomed, valued, and able to fully participate in our county. Thank you so much.

We will now move on to the consent agenda. And as a reminder, all items of consent agenda are considered to be routine and may be enacted by one motion. If a commission requests discussion on the item, the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. So at this time, is there a motion to approve each item as presented in the consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda. Second.

We have a motion by Commissioner Stallings and a second by Commissioner Thomas. All in favor please say aye.

Aye.

Okay, anybody opposed please say no. Not hearing any. The ayes have it and each item in the consent agenda number six through 18 is adopted including the resolution on Dr. Robinson. And now we will move on to general public comments. And before we begin general public comments, I want to remind everyone that we have two public hearings later in the meeting regarding the bond referendum. If you are here to speak specifically on either bond question, please hold your remarks until those hearings open. As a general public comment is not the appropriate time for bond related feedback. At our regular meeting, the Board of Commission allocates time to hear from residents. Attendees had an opportunity to sign up using our online sign up app. We've also provided opportunity to sign up here in person. I have the list of people who signed up. When I call your name, please come to the podium, give us your name, and if you would, share what part of Wake County you reside in. Then you will have up to three minutes to speak. When you have one minute left, the yellow light will come on. When your time has lapsed, the red light will go on. If you're still speaking at the end of your time, I'll ask you to complete your sentence in the interest of fairness to everyone. I'm going to try to be consistent, so please, when you come up to speak, pay attention to the lights that you got, green, yellow, and red. I will begin with the first name on the list, and the first name on the list is Wesley Knox.

Good afternoon. My name is Wesley Knott. I live in Northeast Raleigh. Thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment and for your consideration of our community's last minute short noticed exceptional request in the face of some exceptional circumstances. Let me start by just saying what an honor it is to appear before what I see as an oasis of democratic process in a state that is increasingly authoritarian. I grew up in rural Mississippi, where there were no such bodies to appear before in the face of similar voter suppression. And I'm grateful to live in Wake County. I'm grateful to have commissioners who believe that everyone deserves equitable access to the ballot box, no matter who they are, who they love, where they come from, or who they plan to vote for. And I'm grateful for the levers of power that are available to you as commissioners. I recognize the privilege that I have in being able to request assistance in this way and get any consideration at all. I know that residents are facing real challenges and I know that there are lots of competing priorities across the county that you're working hard to mitigate. I also recognize the responsibility I have as the Wake County Democratic Party Chair to represent our party, our candidates, our voters, frankly our volunteers who are organizing for something every day that I believe they deserve a fair shot at, and our fundamental right to vote in free and fair elections. Earlier this afternoon, I submitted a petition that we launched just two days ago. And in two days, it has collected signatures from more than 1,700 Wake County residents now, asking for contingent funding to combat voter suppression in Wake County. At principal issue is the decision by the new Republican majority on our Wake County Board of Elections. A majority achieved, I will note, because the state legislature removed the power to appoint those members from our Democratic governor to give it to an office that they won. who restricted and refused to rename the Talley Student Union at NC State as an early voting site for the midterms this fall. Selecting a different site that's 25 minutes of a walk away served by only two bus lines that, as Board of Elections member Jerry Cohen noted at the meeting and in public writing to you, are materially less accessible for students. They listed a number of reasons why this new site might work better for people in the community, and maybe they're right, but it's not true for the 40,000 students at NC State. And it comes in the context of similar efforts across the state to restrict access to on campus early voting for students. What we're asking for today is for contingent funding to either restore that voting site if the Board of Elections will vote to amend its plan, or if they refuse to be used instead to mitigate these voter suppression efforts using every legal mechanism available to you. Today is the only opportunity for this board to fulfill this request before early voting site plans are finalized. If appropriated, I'll pass the petition to the Board of Elections with hope they'll restore that voting site. And if not, I will walk away with the assurance that this board will ensure that these students and any other voters in the county whose access to equitable early voting has been affected by the site selection plan have the resources that they need to vote this fall. Thank you again for the opportunity.

Thank you. I must ask please refrain from celebration. Next up will be Anjanette Porter.

My name is Anjanette Porter and I live in Southern Wake County. Thank you commissioners for taking time. Hello neighbors. I had the opportunity to interact with Wake County Animal Control and Wake County Public Health following an attack last month, and those interactions have me here asking you to do better. I was connected with Wake County Animal Control when an owned leash dog attacked me while I was on a walk. When I asked how long should I expect to wait, no definite time frame could be given. Imagine standing in the June temperatures, injured, in shock and pain, and no assurance that help is intimate. Officer Ferguson did arrive within the hour and proceeded to press upon me that I should be honored by his response time. He took my information, listened to a retelling of the attack, consulted the witness, reviewed ring camera footage, and gave me the directive to locate the possibly rabbit animal as he did not have the resources to do so. He handed me a card, circled the block, and was on his way. Here I am, injured, being told my attack does not justify urgency from a public safety agent, and now I must somehow do Animal Control's job. Adding confusion to my pain and suffering, I am left wondering why does the county's procedure for locating an animal involved in a human attack require the victim to further risk their safety going door to door in search of an already proven irresponsible animal owner and demonstrated vicious dog? Wake County services continued to disappoint when I was contacted four days later, and please keep in mind, rabies is fatal, by Tammy at Wake County Public Health. She did not indicate that she had case specifics nor solicit information that would have allowed her to tailor any health advice. She gave me rabies protocol, which I explained, contradicted that provided by an ER doctor, to which she replied she'd leave me with this information and keep my case open for a few days. Again, I was left bewildered by an agency designed to help, but fell far short of doing so. I appreciate Animal Control Officer Aaron's, Director Jennifer Brown's, and Commissioner Cheryl Stallings' attempts to manage Wake County's shortcomings. But these chats do not erase the feeling of insignificance your agents bestowed upon me when I needed life-affirming help, clear information, and empathy. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, Dan Fox, MD.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. Good afternoon. My name is Dan Fox, and I love to practice medicine. I consider it my life's vocation and calling. And I'm a critical care physician at Wake Med, and I've worked there for the last 11 years. I'm also one of the physician leaders that directs our hospital medicine programs at all of our campuses. Thank you for the opportunity to speak briefly with you this afternoon. And what I would like to do is to provide some perspective and my support for the proposal of the strategic partnership between Wake Med and Atrium. I have two main messages that I'd like to convey to all of you today. Three minutes is a short amount of time, so I'll try to be really brief. The first, and I think maybe the most important, is that the physicians of Wake Med, I supervise about 330 of our docs and APPs who are on the front lines, because of our commitment to providing the most access that we can, to provide the best patient care that we can, are excited about this partnership. Number two is that I believe that Atrium is a like-minded partner with a history of collaborating to care for our sickest patients. Wake Med physicians have a simple and enduring mission, to care for the people of Wake County. Every day I drive to New Bern and I do that. This is why many of us come here rather than one of the other local hospitals. And it's why we've stayed here. We care for patients in the emergency department when it's overflowing, the ICUs when they're full. We take care of strokes and heart attacks, shepherd patients through the cancer journey, and then care for them near the end of their lives. But to continue providing excellent care, good intentions and hard work are not going to be enough. Our patients need us to have access to the clinical resources, the physical infrastructure, technology, specialty depth, and capital investment that are required to continue to do this great work right here in Wake County. We all know that change is hard and can be scary. We get that. But we know that boldness is required when the stakes are high. You all know that so well. And for our patients and the members of Wake County, The stakes have never been higher. I want to be very clear about this. This is not about becoming something other than Wake Med. It is about making sure that Wake Med has the resources to remain strong, clinically excellent, and deeply committed to Wake County. I believe that fully. In the last 30 seconds, I also want to say that I feel very comfortable with what Atrium seems to be doing as a potential partner. During the COVID pandemic, I worked very closely with their ICU leaders. We took care of sick patients, we talked on the phone, we shared ideas, talked about infrastructure and resources. It was in a time when no one had answers, they were good partners to us. And I believe they will be into the future. As a hospital-based physician leader, but more importantly, as a boots-on-the-ground ICU doctor, I believe this is the best thing for Wake County moving forward. I respectfully ask the board to support this strategic partnership and to help ensure that Wake Med remains a strong, mission-driven healthcare institution for our people of Wake County. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, Pete Tannenbaum.

Thank you, Commissioners. I appreciate the opportunity to speak on behalf of Wake Med as an important partner to my organization, Alliance Medical Ministry. We are on the front lines of the uninsured populations of Wake County. Today, there are 75,000 residents in Wake County that don't have healthcare insurance, that don't have access to Medicaid. Wake Med is the safety net. And as quickly as our county is growing, our view as a small safety net provider is that their continued growth, not just for today, but for tomorrow, is vital to our county. Every three to four years, Wake County performs the Wake County Community Health Needs Assessment. In 2025, the same results as the two prior assessments, which said that our county's two of the three biggest problems in our county, access to primary care, access to mental health care, as well as housing, are the big issues facing our county. We agree with that. We see the uninsured population as a safety net provider. There are more uninsured people in Wake County that reside here than 60% of counties across North Carolina have in total population. It's a significant issue. The need today for Wake Med to support the safety net, it's extreme. Today, the safety net is not prospering. It's being overwhelmed. as one of the fastest growing counties, how can we sustain that? What is it gonna look like in five years, 10 years, or 20 years down the road? Wake County needs a strong and growing Wake Med today, as well as for tomorrow. Wake Med is our safety net hospital. Alliance is proud to partner with Wake Med. They provide us with funding, with medical technology, all kinds of assistance so that we can take care of our community's most vulnerable, some of our sickest populations here. It's essential for our county for future growth, for the quality of life for all residents to make sure that there is an adequate safety net that is growing. And that's why I'm in favor of this proposed merger, that it allows Wake Med to grow and to serve our growing county. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, Carlin Knapp.

No.

No? Okay.

I'm Carolyn Knopp and I live in the Northwest Raleigh. Good afternoon. It's my pleasure to speak with you today on behalf of Wake Med's proposed strategic combination, not a takeover, with Atrium Health. My connection to Wake Med spans much of my life. My mother was a nurse at Wake Med for 20 years and I've spent 27 years here myself, first as a nurse and now as a member of the senior leadership team. This organization has shaped who I am, both professionally and personally, and I'm proud to be part of the Wake Med family. In my current role, I help develop and manage strategic partnerships and collaborations in support of our strategic plan. Through this work, I've seen firsthand that partnerships are not all the same. Some are difficult and ultimately fall short of expectations, while others create meaningful value and lasting benefits for everyone involved. I've experienced both types of relationships and have learned what distinguishes a successful partnership from one that struggles or unravels. For the past two years, I have been part of the team evaluating and developing this proposed strategic combination. I want to assure you that this has been a thoughtful and thorough process guided by one central goal, strengthening and protecting Wake Med's mission and its vital role in our community. from the beginning these conversations felt very differently than other collaborative efforts i've participated in they were grounded in shared commitment to serving all and openness to learning from one another and a mutual desire to improve health care for the communities that we serve. As our discussions with Atrium progressed, it became clear that we share not only strategic priorities, but also core values. The alignment in culture, mission, quality, and purpose, combined with the deep respect for the work each organization has accomplished, has made this relationship truly unique. At the same time, as someone who's devoted nearly three decades of my career to Wake Med, I felt personally responsible to conduct my own due diligence. I could not support this effort if I did not genuinely believe it was the right path forward for the organization, our team members, and the patients we serve. I encourage each of you to do the same, and I want to thank you for being engaged in the processes by attending community listening sessions, asking thoughtful questions, and participating in dialogue with Wake Med and Atrium Health leaders. Finding a partner that truly shares your culture, commitment to mission, dedication to quality, and sense of purpose is not easy. Based on my experience thus far, along with my own research and fact finding, I can say with confidence that we have found that partner in Atrium Health. I hope you will join us in supporting this combination and vote in approval of the amendment to the transfer agreement and the new Articles of Incorporation. My mom and I thank you.

Thank you. Next is, I think it's Wakewa Ellis. Correct me on the pronunciation. Akia. Akia?

Good afternoon, it is a pleasure to speak to you today. My name is Wakia Ellis and I am the Vice President for Nursing at Wake Med at our Raleigh campus. I am very proud to be here representing nurses and our care teams in strong support of the proposed strategic combination between Wake Med and Atrium Health. Wake Med is an incredible organization with incredible clinicians who make a meaningful impact on our patients, their families, and our community every day. We all understand how quickly healthcare is evolving, how quickly care delivery models are changing. These changes are driven by advancements in technology, innovation, and research. For smaller independent health systems like Wake Med, these advancements offer huge opportunities, but they come at a tremendous cost. Our strong financial performance allows us to invest in significant capital dollars towards our basic needs to provide high level care for patients. Things like patient beds, IV pumps, cardiac monitoring tools. These are all fundamental basics for a healthcare system. But this leaves more advanced state of the art technology that is designed explicitly for the safety and experience of our patients while keeping caregivers at the bedside instead of facing a computer. As this technology continues to advance, these tools will no longer be nice to have. They will be necessary and expected by our community when you need us. Without greater scale and resources, it will become increasingly difficult for Wake Med to keep pace with the expectations on our own. The proposed strategic combination directly addresses this challenge. It would allow us to leverage Atrium Health's strong technology infrastructure and experience and accelerate our ability to bring proven innovations to Wake County. This will also support our staff, not just nurses, but all of our team members by creating a more modern healthcare environment with tools that improve workflows and reduces the burden on bedside clinicians. Technology and innovation are just a couple of the many benefits that this combination offers to Wake Med and the patients we serve. Simply put, this partnership strengthens our ability to serve the community, not just for today, but for tomorrow as well. So in closing, I'd like to say thank you for having us, thank you for this thoughtful consideration, and I respectfully encourage you to support the Wake Med Atrium Partnership. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Gregg Jarrell.

Hi, Commissioners. Reverend Greg Jarrell, born at Wake Medical Center, son of a WakeMed nurse, grew up in Fuquay, Verena, and I was invited to come up from Charlotte today by some colleagues at the Patients Union to tell you briefly about our experience with Atrium Health there. Atrium is formally established as the Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority. and to the concern of many residents around Charlotte. Atrium has grown significantly while costs have gone up, while interesting accounting helps to display their charity care. And so we have been working with our board of commissioners to work at getting at the heart of Atrium's power that is the constitution of their board of directors. And so with Commission Chair Mark Jarrell, there we have appealed to them not to appoint as many business people with specialists in mergers and acquisitions, but rather to focus more on community care, on public health. on their board. And so Commissioner Jarrell used the authority that he has granted to him and the state charter for our public hospital authorities to return Atrium's board of directors slate to them in December of 2025. What followed was what we have experienced as typical of Atrium, their full resistance of any public accountability or authority that would deny the executive class there the ability to do exactly what they want and only what they want. They have, rather than working with Commissioner Jarrell, instead refused his input. They have operated as though their board slate was pushed through. And they have continued to basically taunt in so many words and to dare him. We have more lawyers than you, in essence, they're saying. Go ahead and challenge us with our authority. I think, based on our experience, that what you, the decision that you are facing here, is not about quality of care. It's not about, it is about community input and control. If you vote for what they will call a combination, but what is a merger or a takeover, you will vote away your own power. As political representatives, you understand your self-interest and your sense of power. If you voted away, you will not get it back. You will be invited to attend well-choreographed meetings where all the business has been done well before you showed up. Your authority will be gone. I caution you in the strongest terms against such an arrangement. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Anthony Pope.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Anthony Pope. I represent an organization known as the Men of Southeast Raleigh. We're a group of men that were born and raised in this community, and so we lived here all of our lives. Our mission is to advocate and engage our Southeast Raleigh community so that they will be aware of things that are on the agenda that are relevant to us. I'm here to stand before you in opposition of this merger between Atron and Wake Med. I'm speaking from my heart. I didn't write any type of speech, anything. I was born in St. Agnes Hospital, which at that time was the only black hospital here in Raleigh, located on the campus of St. Augustine University. When St. Agnes merged with Wake Med, the delivery of services was pretty much seamless. They picked right up where the services that we had gotten at St. Agnes Hospital were provided for us when we moved to Wake Med. My main concern is that a lot of times when things are happening in Wake County, our Southeast Raleigh community, which was traditionally the historically black part of town, we were often left off the agenda. We weren't informed, or if we were informed, decisions were already made prior to us having an opportunity to express our concerns. So as I stand here before you today, my concern is with this merger, how will it impact those people that are indigent? It's quite a few. The marginalized communities are ones that are gonna be impacted. You've heard from all those individuals who come from other areas, and they may come from more prevalent areas, but in Southeast Raleigh, it's always been a struggle for us with everything. There are decisions that are made, and we don't know about them until after they're made. We have these public meetings. just for us to voice our opinions so that they can say we checked the box. We went out and we had the community meetings and we heard what people said. But a lot of times those decisions have already been made. I ask that you would really consider how it's going to impact our marginalized communities because we're the ones that's going to be impacted more so than anyone else. Gentrification, it's going to happen and we don't have a problem with that. But we want to have a seat at the table to be present when these decisions are made. And so I'm asking that you reconsider this merger or takeover, whichever you want to call it, partnership. You can describe it any kind of way you want to. But it's going to impact those communities where I come from, the black communities that don't have access to the health care that's needed. And you look at Wake County with 66 people moving here every day, there's There's a lot of people that are moving in for high-tech jobs. They make that kind of money. It doesn't happen in Southeast Raleigh. We're still struggling. And so I ask that you consider this merger, this takeover, reconsider it, I should say. Thank you for putting it on the consent agenda to move forward with talking about it more. So with that being said, please reconsider this partnership.

Next up, Hassan Rodriguez Santo.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. Muy buenas tardes. My name is Jesus Rodriguez Soto, Wake County resident, and also with the Health Advocacy Project for North Carolina Justice Center. I want to speak about timing. This takeover is being proposed as a moment when patients are already under enormous pressure, as you all well know. Health care costs are rising. Families are struggling with medical debt. people are losing Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage. More people are going to need help paying for care, no fewer. This makes WIC-Med charity care and financial assistance policies even more important. This is exactly the wrong time to narrow down the safety net. If more people are insured or underinsured, then weakening financial assistance means more people will delay care, skip care, or end up in debt. And the people hurt most will be the low-income patients, working families, and people with chronic conditions and communities already facing barriers to care. Atrium is trying to present this as a positive change, but patients need to know what happened when the press conference is over and the bills arrive. Will they earn money? Will they qualify for less help? Will they have to wait until their condition becomes urgent before charity care applies? Those are not small questions. Those are life-changing questions. Commissioners, this is the wrong time to gamble with patients' protections. Please block this merger and keep Wake Med Safety Net in place for Wake County families. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Rob Stevens.

Good afternoon, Commission. I thank you for this opportunity. First, I want to thank you, as you mentioned, Chair Myall, that the consent agenda is for routine matters, and this is anything but routine, what's happening today. This is the most consequential decision that will be happening in this year, at least, if not beyond, as many communities have told us already who have given away their hospitals. This has been tried to be ran through by an army of attorneys and PR team at Atrium and Advocate. There's a reason they want to put it on the consent agenda because they didn't want the public to actually have input. And we attended the public hearings. We went to those public hearings. It was manufactured consent for a manufactured crisis. They're now telling their employees that if we don't do this, then Wake Med won't survive, which is the exact opposite of what Wake Med said just a couple weeks ago. On the charity care, Atrium is trying to sell people on the idea that financial assistance policy is better. But when you look closely, and hopefully you've received the reports out of Brown University School of Public Health, as well as Professor Mark Hall out of Wake Forest Baptist, leading legal scholars and experts on charity care. But as Professor Hall says, Atrium's advocacy policy is narrower than the Wake Med's currently that covers all necessary hospital care. And the difference is that it excludes care that can be safely postponed. So there's this key difference and subtle difference that's in there that HCA Mission Hospital thought that they were getting a better charity care, but they had the same subtle difference. It turns out they got much worse charity care. And by doing that, they were able to increase the margins in profit for the for-profit hospital. Professor Hall also explains that elective does not always mean optional. During COVID, hospitals called many serious services elective, if you remember that time, because they could be scheduled later. Things like cancer biopsies, orthopedic surgeries, accidents, cardiac valve replacement, and some early stage cancer surgeries. And we don't think patients should have to wait before they're in crisis, before it's a life or death situation to get the help that they need. Currently, Wake Med offers 62% discount to all uninsured patients, over 300%. regardless of income. Atrium has a 75% for a small group of patients, but the rest have 50%. So it's not really much more generous even on paper, but the kicker is if Atrium's prices are higher to begin with, a bigger discount on paper may still leave patients owing. A bigger discount on a bigger bill is not... automatically better, if that makes sense. So the charity care on its face, while they're trying to sell it as being better, is actually putting us in a very dangerous situation. And the attorneys are also trying to convince folks that you do not have the power to change this. You absolutely, and the auto message from the county is misleading when it says that you don't have the power to approve it, which may be technically true because the FTC does, but that makes people think that you don't have the power to actually make a decision, and you are the body that makes the decision on whether our hospital is taken from us.

Thank you. Next up, Miss Nathan Foster.

Hello, commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Nathan Foster. I'm a health policy specialist with the North Carolina Justice Center, and I just want to outline why we at the Justice Center believe this deal to be a takeover and why we think that it should not move forward in its current form. The proposed takeover of Wake Med by Atrium Advocate Health would raise hospital prices in Wake County on state ride, undermine community control, and it would threaten Wake Med's quality of care and commitment to low-income residents. As county commissioners, under the 1997 agreement that took Wake Med from a fully public hospital to a nonprofit hospital with a publicly appointed board, you have the absolute right to reject any deal that does not serve the people of Wake County, and we believe that the deal in its current form does not do so. So I'm a big believer in first impressions, and I want to share the first impression that Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell had of this deal. She said, Wakeman has a 10% profit margin, a much lower rate of profit, and atriums is like 40%, which makes me think that prices are going to go up locally here for care. And that's absolutely right. Wake Med is financially healthy right now. A 10% profit margin for a nonprofit hospital is a healthy profit margin. It's a 40% margin that is unhealthy. That is money that is taken out of the community. That is money that is taken out of people's paychecks in the form of unnecessarily high premiums. And Atrium has promised a lot in terms of investment in the community, not guaranteed, but promised. This is not something that they're doing out of the charity of their hearts. It's really about this 40% versus 10%. That's a big difference. That's a big business decision that can be made if Wake Med starts behaving more like Atrium. So one way that could be is higher prices. Atrium charges between 15% and 40% more for the exact same care for the state health plan. The state health plan and the state treasurer and the state auditor oppose this deal because they know that it would raise health care prices for state employees and for everybody else in North Carolina. The second way that you can get from 10% to 40% is by cutting services or by taking more money from the community. We've heard about charity care on both sides of this. The details are complicated, but suffice it to say that the numbers don't lie. Wakeman provides 4% of its services as charity care, whereas Atrium only provides 1%. And I would be happy to get the source for that to you guys. So there can be a lot of subtlety with these policies, but the fact is that Wake Med is much more generous to the communities that it serves than Atrium is. The Atrium no longer sues patients for medical debt, but it used to be the most prolific, most litigious hospital in the state between 2017 In 2022, 40% of all patients in North Carolina who were sued for medical debt were sued by Atrium. They no longer pursue those practices, but it's largely because of public backlash. And if you give up community control in this way, if Atrium does something that the people of Wake County don't like, you'll have to rely on public backlash.

Okay, sir, your time is now up. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Hershen Millett-Stevens.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Reverend Hershey Millette Stevens. I'm here today as a patient, as a mother, a wife, and someone who is alive because weight med did another hospital's job. In 2020, I gave birth to my son via induction after 36 hours and I had a C-section. the hospital across town pushed me out the door after I delivered a nine pound baby. And when I was sent home, I weighed more than I did after delivering the baby. And the next day I woke up And I had shortness of breath. And I went to Wake Med because it's close to my home. And it was there that I was diagnosed with postpartum preeclampsia with pulmonary edema and heart failure. We know... that motherhood, that women who give birth put their life at risk, and maternal morbidity is abysmal in this country, and even more so for women who look like me. But it was at Wake Med that I was seen, that I found care, that I was able to ultimately even have a second child because the physicians there assured me that they would care for me. We read articles together, we talked about my medication, and I was able to choose my delivering physician. And when I hear that Wake Med is being handed over to Atrium, a hospital system based in Charlotte, I don't hear growth, I don't hear care, I don't hear bigger is better. what I hear is a warning and I'm not a health economist, I told you I'm a mother, I'm not a hospital executive, I'm a priest and I know what it feels like when a system works and I know what it feels like when it doesn't. When it doesn't, people die, and I was at death's door. And the experts are warning you too. Researchers from Brown University School of Public Health looked at this proposed merger or combination and said it raises numerous concerns. They call it a de facto cross-market merger. The Brown Report says that mergers like this have been linked to price increases of 7% to 17%. For families in Southeast Raleigh, for families in Wake County, this is not abstract. This is the difference between getting the care you need and putting it off, the difference between paying the bill and falling behind, between going to the doctor early or waiting until something treatable becomes an emergency. And Wake Med doesn't need to be rescued. Wake Med is a hospital that comes to this from a position of strength. And a hospital should not only be a place we go when the need is emergent, but a hospital should help keep us from getting to that place of emergency. And that is what Wake Med did for me.

Thank you. Next up, Ms. Mary Thompson. Ms. Mary Thompson? I'm not seeing her. Okay, Reverend Dr. Portia Rochelle.

Good afternoon, commissioners. I'm here to speak on behalf of the NAACP Rolla Apex branch. We're disappointed on the decision to remove the tally site for voting. For over 100 years, the NAACP has fought for voting rights because we understand that it is the foundation for which all other rights are based. Young people are not just a future, they're current participants in our democracy. College students face unique barriers. Most don't have cars on campus. They don't deserve additional obstacles to voting. We echo Chairman Knott's request to allocate additional funding to the Board of Election to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot. I also want to speak on another subject, the merger of Wake Med and Atrium. Speaking on behalf of the NAACP and myself as a citizen that lives in Southeast Raleigh. Wake Med is not failing. It is not a hospital on the edge of collapse. Wakeman leadership has already said the system is entering this deal from a position of strength. So we have to ask, if Wakeman is strong, why are we handing it over? I just can't make it make sense. A lot of hospital mergers are sold to the public as rescue missions. We're told that there is no choice, but this is not what we see happening here. This is a strong trusted community hospital system. Atrium is not offering a clear purchase price. They're promising investment. But from what we have seen, there are no actual commitments tied to the promised 2 billion investment. Patients are being asked to trust vague promises from a giant hospital center. UNC's offer showed that Wake Med is clearly a valuable institution. This is not a rescue, this is a takeover. The Brown University report says that this kind of deal is called a cross-market merger. That means that hospital systems that may not compete directly in the same city combine into one much larger system. The research shows that these mergers can raise profits. For patients, that does not sound like an abstract economic theory. That sounds like higher out of pocket costs, more medical debt, and people delaying care because they cannot afford it. Commissioners, you have the power to block this merger. I'm asking you, as a patient and a resident of Southeast Raleigh, I'm asking that you use your power. Vote no on this takeover and protect the Wake County patients from higher costs. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Octavia Rainey.

Good evening. My name is Octavia Rainey, and I live in Southeast Raleigh, 27601. First, let me say this. I do support the merger, not the merger, the partnership between Weight Med and Atrium. Second of all, I am the only one that you hear everybody talking about mergers. I have 36 years of experience across the United States dealing with mergers. I am I am the only one with merger experience because I have the opportunity for 36 years to deal with banks that merge into other banks. So I think I am the only one here with that kind of experience. I don't know what everybody else is talking about. Second of all, I'm tired of hearing about this Brown report because there are other reports that do support weight med and atrium merger. Third of all, we keep forgetting that out of this deal, St. Augustine's College will come out on top. We all know that St. Agnes closed, went to Wake Med. I'm working on the revalidation strategy and I need St. Agnes in that group. I want to talk about sickness. I have been sick myself living in 27601, and I received the greatest care at WaitMed, the greatest care. I have also volunteered with WaitMed for over 25 years and seen them do outreach into Southeast Raleigh where no other person came to do outreach. What is the problem here? You've heard everybody talk, but let's talk for real. I am appalled that this group did not call Wake Med up first to sit down and say, we need to have a conversation about your partnership. That is business. That's how you do business. That's how I've been taught all my life at doing mergers. Why didn't they do that? Why didn't they bring those concerns so that there could be a level of conversation where we could all talk? I am appalled, Reverend. I am appalled. It takes two to hold a conversation, baby. And another thing, Wade Med has the right to partnership. It's a poor rat don't have but one hole to run in. When you look at the future and what they're talking about is their future, their future. You as county commissioners, y'all look toward the future. You raised our taxes. You don't care if we struggle to pay them like I do. I'm struggling to pay my taxes. So I don't get it. I mean, I think that there should be a conversation, but don't hold up, wait a minute, from partnering with Atrium, thank you.

Your time is up, thank you. Mr. Frank White.

Good afternoon. I greet you as a pastor, as a servant leader, and thank you for the opportunity to speak on this matter. I became somewhat concerned when I initially heard about the potential merger, language and all those things that could potentially happen with Wake Men. And I kept an open mind. I kept an open mind for the simple fact that as an attorney with 30 plus years background, more than 25 dealing with mergers and acquisitions, I came to the understanding that when deals of this nature, I constructed them, I went over them, I interpreted them, and what I came to ultimately is that you had to come to a clear understanding that the devil is often in the details. And for me, I would like to say that this is something that is pivotal to our community. I want to be very clear to the commissioners and all those who will be involved in the process that this is not a done deal. Wake Med and Atrium may want people to believe that the county commission does not have the power or the responsibility to stop this takeover, but it's not true. In 1997, there was an agreement which created for exactly this kind of moment to give the people of Wake County, through their elected representatives, the power to oversee any transfer of control over our hospital. You're not just being asked to give an opinion, you're being asked to give permission. And you have the power to say no. Commissioners, you ran for office. The voters voted you, they elected you to make decisions that is in the public interest. This may be the biggest and the most consequential decision that you make in this role. You have a responsibility to do that which is best for patients, families, workers, and for the people of Wake County. It's not the easiest decision, certainly not the fastest, but it is the thing that must be done. In matters of this nature, there must be disclosure. There must be dialogue. There must be opportunity for discussion and debate. And at the end of the day, what we arrive at should be that which is in the best interest for our community. By now, the public has had the opportunity to review it. We've had the opportunity to attend meetings. Some have studied the deal, and many of us believe that at the end of the day, this is a rotten deal for us and our community. Commissioners, I beg you, I adjure you. Mr. White, I'm sorry to cut you off, but your time is up.

Thank you, sir. I don't need to preach a mold, forgive me. Next up, Michelle Morrow.

Hello, I'm Michelle Morrow, and I live in Cary, North Carolina. And first, I wanted to thank you guys for this opportunity, and thank you for catching this transaction that they were intentionally trying to get passed through without us being able to talk about it. Because clearly, you understand, as elected officials, as the Reverend just mentioned, that your number one role as any elected official is to protect the life liberty and pursuit of happiness of the citizens that you represent and i am a nurse of 33 years i was actually trained at unc hospitals and a former nurse at wake med and i am asking you to vote no on this for several reasons. I just want to point out some of the things that they have put forward as though it's going to be helpful to the community and how that is actually false. When they're saying that they want to give $2 billion into infrastructure and into IT and growth, we are not opposed to that. But what we are opposed to is making all of our health care costs go up. And what we need to recognize is this is not just going to impact Wake County, this is going to impact the state. Because even the state health plan administrators have come out and said the pricing for atrium is so much higher than that of Wake Med, that that is going to impact not just those here in Wake County, but around the state of North Carolina. The other thing I'd like to say is growth does not, does that mean what's gonna happen with our prices? Because here in Wake County, we are actually incredibly blessed. It is not just Wake Med that you can have access for care. You also have UNC and you have Duke and you have many areas, but there are probably 70 different out of the 100 counties in North Carolina that people have to travel two and three hours into Wake County in order to get surgeries, or they have to be life flighted. So if Atrium really wants to improve North Carolina's healthcare, they would be looking at other rural areas and putting satellite areas where people have expanded healthcare so they don't have to travel three hours into our county to get quality care. The other thing I want to say is, When you're looking at the state health plan, you are talking about the very people that we were just celebrating today, the first responders, the teachers, the state workers, not just that are working right now, but those that are retired. We were just applauding the fact that we ended up with some pay raises for them that were much needed over the last several years. Now we're potentially going to charge them more for their benefits packages for the same because who's going to be making the money? It's going to be the CEOs. It's going to be the people at the top of this. And so I beseech you, please put the needs of the people of North Carolina, the people of Wake County first, not the corporations. That's not why we elect people, to make wealthier people wealthier. We need to... make sure that we have quality health care, and we need to respect the fact that Wake County, the Wake Med system was built on the trust and with the hard work of people here in this county, and they are the ones that should be first and foremost. So I ask you, if you are not able to vote no right now, I would ask you to wait and to postpone and to put in a referendum that this is not voted on until we can look at this at the state health plan and consider it. Thank you so much. Appreciate the time.

Next up is Marshall Elstad.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is Marshall Elstad. I live in Cary. and I'm here to speak on behalf of the students at NC State regarding the loss of our early voting site at Talley Student Union to the best of my ability. I'm the treasurer for the College Democrats at NC State. I'm also president of National Ground Game at NC State, along with being a full-time student with around 14 credit hours, give or take each semester. I say none of that, by the way, to win some type of busy or stress Olympics, we're all busy and stressed. I've met and talked with students who have 19 credit hours each semester and are involved with far more organizations than just two. Needless to say, we students are a busy bunch. It's a very normal and necessary part of the college experience to be engaging with various different clubs, organizations, particularly as an undergrad, juggling multiple different kinds of classes as we attempt to settle on a satisfying answer to the question that tends to have a moving target for most undergrads, what's your major? As we learn and grow into the people, into the citizens that will productively and thoughtfully contribute to society, one of these critically important contributions is our civic duty to participate in our democracy by voting. and I'm here trying to speak on behalf of those who couldn't be here to speak for themselves. Reaching out to students, connecting with them, getting them engaged with the democratic process is one of our top priorities as college Democrats. With a lively midterm election coming up that will be here before we can blink, and the normal amount of electioneering required for any election season on top of our schoolwork, classes, and part-time jobs, the loss of Talley Student Union as an early voting site on NC State's campus is a devastating and demoralizing blow to us as a student community. Talley Student Union is situated right in the middle of the action on campus, and it serves as the central hub and heart of campus life at NC State. Easily accessible on foot between classes, right where we students live, study, gather, and most importantly, eat. Students such as myself the past two semesters often have as little as 30 minutes between classes to grab a bite to eat and then jog right back through the tunnels to get back to the classes in time where the classrooms are that run out of the train tracks. For students with that little time between classes, they may not be able to vote at all this time around, which is tragic enough. For students with a bit more time between classes, say an hour and 90 minutes, they will not feasibly be able to vote either without some serious infrastructural and institutional assistance. It's a 25 minute walk from Talley and most other central locations on main campus to the McKimmon Center. That means 50 minutes round trip. And that's just travel time. Every minute adds up in this only one mile walk. There is not your average mile with a surprisingly steep hill encompassing the first half of the journey if you've ever walked it. Along with a busy four lane highway, we're waiting at the crossing light and add another five minute obstacle. I could go even further about the impact that this has on our students with limited mobility, but I only have a limited amount of time. So I'll wrap up with this. I have heard that what we are asking for is unconventional, and I trust that it is. But while I respect the norms and traditions of the board as somebody who respects norms and traditions in this country, as a student who knows how this will affect the largest student body in the state, I plead with you to make an exception here to set this funding aside. Pre-authorize it for the Board of Elections if they'll use it to restore the site, or authorize the county to explore ways to mitigate this voter suppression using those same funds if they won't. And I just want to say you have the opportunity to be the heroes of the story for students that are already feeling hopeless and apathetic about the world we're about to be plunged into after college. Thank you.

Thank you. Beck Whitehead.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

My name is Beck Whitehead. I'm a rising senior at NC State, and I am the proud president of the College Democrats of North Carolina. I'm the former president of the College Democrats at NC State, so I hope to speak with some institutional knowledge to you guys today. Over my time at NC State, I've had the beautiful honor and privilege to vote at my own student union. What a blessing it is to vote at our student union, Talley Student Union, named after our first vice chancellor on student affairs. Banks C. Talley, for fun fact. The most beautiful thing about college is our students. If we want to believe in our students and if we want to believe in our democracy, it is a travesty to let yet another campus voting site be removed without doing everything in our ability to fight back. You might ask, now what? Where did the Wake BOE send our substitute voting site to NC State students? Well, we got the McKimmon Business Center, a professional suite designed for business meetings, not for students, and certainly not for voting. To echo a colleague of mine, this is almost a 25-minute walk from campus. I walked here today, it was 13 minutes, and to say that we need to walk actually quadruple that, or is that the math right? Anyways, double and double, that's a long frickin' walk. Do we seriously think that full-time students have the ability to make this long hour walk in the middle of our day across a four-lane Western Boulevard highway? And that's just the walking time, not even the voter ID lines. If they want to register same day, what if they have ADA requirements? The Wake BOE has made very little effort to solicit feedback from our students about all these urgent issues. They've sent a clear message that students are not a priority for elections. that we clearly don't matter. We know that the removal of NC State's voting site was not the first campus removal voting site and certainly not the last. There's a targeted attack across marginalized communities and across our students as we've seen at Western Carolina, North Carolina A&T, and UNC Greensboro. And now, my own school. There are threats that we're facing in this country and in the state right now that we don't have the power to effectively resist. But this, this is something that you guys can do something about. I urge you, please advocate for me and Marshall and Taequann and Tan and the student leaders in this room and the 30,000 plus undergraduate students at NC State who simply want to vote for a better world this November. Thank you guys.

Thank you. And lastly, Ms. Rose Cornelius.

Good afternoon, I'm Reverend Dr. Rose Cornelius. I live in Apex. uh... i've worked with the poor as a minister for decades i've many of you know me in the affordable housing space uh... i've also worked as a development director of several non-profits among them dorcas ministries where i raise money for people who struggle with granting utilities and medical bills and other necessities some invested in this community i love wake county I'm here to speak in favor of Wake Med's partnership with Atrium. I know Wake Med from a different viewpoint than most in here. I served as a senior chaplain there. I know the burden of Wake Med. I also know the remarkable history of Wake Med. It was the first hospital in the southeast to integrate. When its for-profit competitors refused service to people who look like me, Wake Med took the lead. Each year, Wake Med serves hundreds of thousands of indigent people and is currently one of the busiest emergency departments in America, in the top ten. And because so many of the people who come through its emergency department doors had mental health problems, Wake Med decided to step into that space and is now building a world class mental health hospital in Garner. Not only that, the Wake Med Hospital system has intentionally expanded over the years to provide care to hundreds of thousands of people in long overlooked but growing areas of Wake County. Commissioners, I'd like you to consider that some in our area, particularly other major hospital systems, have stirred up a pot of controversy concerning Wake Med's partnership with Atrium because they don't want Wake Med to thrive. They have similarly opposed Wake Med's moves to expand, add beds, acquire state of the art medical equipment. Wake Med needs an infusion of capital in order to continue to meet the growing needs of our community and remain a world-class provider of health care. Do you think we can count on our state legislature to provide help to a hospital system that serves so many poor people? Our state legislature has shown great reluctance to even support something as basic as public education. Is the county in position to provide the type of funding needed for the desperately needed upgrades of the Raleigh campus? I don't think you want to contemplate taking on such a huge task. Partnership with Atrium would bring needed funding to Wake Med without it giving up its autonomy. I say we should move forward and trust the judgment of Donald Getzing and his board of directors who have made some wise and bold moves to ensure that all the people of Wake County can continue to have accessible and compassionate medical care. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, thank you to everyone who signed up to speak during this general comment period. That completes the list of names that was provided for this meeting. We also offer residents the opportunity to submit general comments online. This process is managed by our clerk, Ms. Gilead. Would you kindly share any online public comments that you have received for this meeting?

Certainly, Mr. Chair. There were three citizens talking about equitable and accessible voting opportunities for North Carolina State, the Talley Center, and one opposed to the proposed acquisition of Wake Med Health and Atrium Health. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Ms. Gilead. And before we transition to our regular agenda, we're gonna go ahead and take a five-minute break. Everybody back from recess? Okay, we only have one item on our regular agenda this afternoon, and that is two public hearings for the 2026 bond referendum. Before we begin, I want to note that there will be two separate public hearings on the proposed bond referendum, one for Wake County Public School System and one for Wake Tech Community College. We will take comments on each item individually when those hearings are open. So Todd Taylor, our Debt and Capital Strategy Director, will walk us through this. Todd, welcome. And please go ahead. Thank you, Chair Miles.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. Today is the scheduled public hearings and the related board actions on the proposed bond referenda for both the schools in Lake Tech. for the bond referendum questions that would appear on the November 3rd ballot. Before we get to the respective public hearings, we are glad to have leadership here from both the school system and Wake Tech. They will be sharing their respective planned use of their respective bond funding that would occur under a successful bond referenda. So first up will be Mr. David Burnett from the school system. He is the Assistant Superintendent of Facilities Design and Construction. Mr. Burnett will be presenting detail on the projects planned under the proposed school bond. At the end of his presentation, there will be time for Q&A on specific school project questions. Following Mr. Burnett will be Mr. Charles Scott from Wake Tech Community College. He's the Vice President of Facilities at Wake Tech. and we're also glad to have Dr. Gail Green and Dr. Scott Rawls here in attendance with us as well. Mr. Scott will be presenting detail on the projects planned to be funded with the Wake Tech bond, and then summarily there will be a Q&A opportunity at the end of his presentation for any questions on Wake Tech. Once both those presentations have been completed, I'll come back up to the podium and briefly share a few highlights before the public hearings are conducted. So I will call Mr. Burnett to the podium here and he can get us started off on this item.

Good afternoon, we greatly appreciate the opportunity to present to you today. And we are very hopeful that the needs presented here will be funded through the best financing rate available. This went to Wake Tech.

Commissioners, my apologies, give me two seconds.

That looks like me. Thank you. Yes, and I am Dave Burnett. I'm the Assistant Superintendent for Facilities Design and Construction with Wake County Public Schools. Let me tell you, this presentation is gonna start out broadly, and then we're gonna come a little bit back into details. I know you'll have questions. I suggest maybe you jot the questions down. I might actually get to your questions as we get through the details. This presentation will cover an overview of our seven-year CIP. It'll cover our construction program priorities. We will show you the funding plan and we will show you many of the school's facilities that will benefit from the funding. And of course, I will do my best to answer your questions. The seven-year CIP is our building program plan, and it covers new schools to existing schools, major construction replacements, technology devices, security, and many, many other categories, and we'll show those in a bit. And this is all, of course, under the capital umbrella. This is not maintenance. Maintenance comes out of the operating budget. Our seven-year CIP is presented annually. As proposed, it totals $2.9 billion. I note that to help the public understand that the bond referendum is a part of that seven-year plan and the voter referendum is planned every four years. The CIP to include those bond years has recently pivoted in its priorities and this presentation will show you how we're emphasizing existing schools. For those of you who were at the May presentation or last year's October presentation, you will have seen where we covered that in a great deal of detail and we're very consistent with that direction. This is a summary of the CIP. The yellow columns are the limited obligation bonds funding and the blue columns are the general obligation bonds. Please go to fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29 are the years proposed to be funded by the general obligation bonds that we hope voters will see on the ballot November 3rd. specific to the bond and the bond portion, and not the total CIP. The bond will help pay for three new schools, nine existing schools, lifecycle projects like replacement of tennis courts, tracks, fire alarm systems, HVAC systems, roofs, windows, parking lots, and on and on. Specific to lifecycle, you've seen in years past, those budgets have increased from about $20 million, they're now up to $50 million annually. Additionally, the bond will fund security-related projects, SNAP projects such as Those are projects that support the district needs like a bus garage and some school modernization projects. These would be finishes in schools, paint on the walls, new ceilings, new casework, new flooring, that kind of that kind of work. For the two years of the GO bond, the building program would receive $832.3 million. That's split between $680 million, which would actually be on the bond referendum, is our hope, and $152.3 million, which is considered cash. The new schools, again to show you kind of the emphasis on existing schools, the new schools would receive a bit more than 17% of that funding and the balance would go to primarily to existing schools. specific to new schools. We're generally following Interstate 540's progression around Raleigh. So we and residential development are following that. We need to develop schools now in the eastern Wake County. Little Creek Elementary School will be in the design phase while both Marshburn and Pool Road Elementary School will be in the construction phases at fiscal year. 28th and fiscal year 29. To help you see where those are, you'll see Little Creek Elementary School is identified. That's really near the county line. We've got Marshburn Road Elementary School near 64 and we've got Pool Road Elementary School. This is from our 10-year student membership forecast. The large blue arrows are indicating a large amount of change, which is growth. The smaller blue arrows indicate less amount of change or growth. And from the map, it looks like where we've got the new schools located is right on the mark. This is showing the existing schools line item, and we have eight schools in that category that would be receiving the GO bond funding, while we have a ninth school that also would be receiving that GO bond funding, that is in the PREMP category. These schools are located in Central Wake, East Wake, Southeast Wake, and the slightly West Wake. Combined, this is a $358 million investment in renovating and replacing and additions to existing schools. You can see where those are on this map. And This is specific to program requirements section of the CIP and some form of program requirements or benefit will be touching all the existing schools. And you'll see many of the items here. I've got several slides, actually the next six slides, which will talk about those types of improvements. And some of these are geo-funded items and some of these are cash-funded items. I'll go kind of slow so you can look at these. Really, I probably don't need to say much on these remaining slides. And I am trying to go quickly because I know everybody's time is important. So if you have any questions, I'm happy to take those. And as I continue to move through slowly, again, happy to take any questions. These are specific to lifecycle projects. These are the number of projects we're anticipating at this time. It's about 78, 77, 78 schools that would be touched by lifecycle improvements. Again, that's those HVAC systems, parking lots, tennis courts, fire alarm systems. These are the PREMP projects. PREMP stands for partial renovation improvement projects and that includes the additions project that we're looking at and modernization again and some of the smaller scope projects. SNAP projects that we're looking, that's where that would include that new bus garage that we're proposing. And small projects too, such as Broughton High School softball field. We have many, many projects in the list for wanting to get funding for SNAP and for PRMP. And in addition to all of these, we also have, which is more school funded, which would be the FacMod process. So we have quite a few, probably hundreds of FacMods that are seeking to get approval and get started. Happy to answer any questions.

Okay, thank you. Commissioners, are there any questions or comments at this time? Yes, Commissioner Waters.

Thank you for providing this comprehensive update. I was curious about the list of renovations or replacements. There are a number of schools on that list and I was just wondering will these schools need swing space and what does that look like or will these schools remain, what does it look like in terms of schools like Hunter that have large student populations in terms of the construction work, will they swing out or will, what does that look like?

Okay, very good question. Not all of those scopes. Well, actually, I can kinda go down some of the list. Washington, we do need to get into that design phase and see how we're going to handle that. Wendell, what we do expect is that we're gonna be building the new Marshburn Road Elementary School. The expectation is that Wendell would swing into that new school. then we would be working on the Wendell Elementary School. Of course, we have to go through that design process and make sure that that is what happens, but as we go through the design process, we get some feedback, things like that. Some scopes could change. East Wake High School, we do expect that would be an onsite swing. Again, the concept at the moment, we haven't gone through the design yet, but the concept at the moment is that We would be building new on that campus. We would move into that facility and then East Wake High School building, the existing buildings, would be available as swing space as we do other work in that part of the county. Briarcliff Elementary School. That is, from memory, that is an onsite swing. Hunter Elementary School, we have to do the design on that and to confirm which way we're going to be going with that. What we know at the moment is at least an addition. the East Garner Middle School that will be on-site work and that they'll be able to stay in the facility that they're in right now as we do that work. We're designing that project right now. Ligon Middle School, I'm sure most people are familiar with that one. That is going to be an onsite swing where we're going to build the new school, move into it, and then tear down the older buildings of that campus. and convert those to ball fields. Athens Drive High School, that will all be on site, there won't be any off-site swing with that. And Cary High School, we have to do the design, we haven't designed that yet, but the expectation is they will be on site throughout the construction and development to that project.

Thank you so much, I know the schools on this list have deep meaning to many of our community members, so I appreciate that update.

Any other questions, commissions? Yes, Commissioner Thomas.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm just wondering, I'm thinking, I'm looking at the amounts and I'm just wondering what is the difference in the construction? I know you just explained that Ligon is not necessarily going to have swing. It's going to move to the newly constructed site and then the existing buildings are going to be torn down, but it's also 133 million. And then Cary does not have schematic design yet, you said, I think?

Yeah, we haven't started the design. Of course.

And so just thinking about the cost differences, could you explain to me a little bit the cost differences? I'm just looking at how much between Ligon, Cary, and East Garner, how much those are going to cost?

Yep, thank you. Good question.

Thank you, Commissioner Evans.

And these are limited to the two years that are in the bond, the GO bond funded years. So the plan is seven years and so you may have funding that starts before these two years and you may have funding that goes after these two years. So specific to Cary High School, That has additional funding before. There's design money in fiscal year 27, which is now this year, and there's about $13 million in fiscal year 30. So there is additional funds for that project. They just aren't bond funded. They would be LOB funded, which is the limited obligation bonds.

Okay, so you explained Cary. Tell me more about Ligon.

Ligon has already received funding. Let's make sure. Yes. Almost $7.3 million. So that adds up to that total of $133 million.

Okay. I'm just concerned about the amount of the bond, and so that is why I asked that question. Thank you. Okay.

Any other questions? Yeah, Commissioner Jackson.

Thank you. Can you talk a little bit about some of the trade-offs? As Commissioner Thomas mentions, the amount of the bond, can you, I mean, it's, A lot of good thinking went into calculating. But can you share any of the trade-offs that were made, if any, to be able to operate within this total bond amount?

Most of that is trying to figure out the years when the projects need to occur. And for where we are today, some of that has happened years ago. So the way this works is we work with our partner, Wake County, and what we receive from Wake County staff is here's the projected years, I'm sorry, here's the projected amounts that we are gonna need to try to stay at. That's where we then fill in with the projects, and we're looking left to right. as to what makes sense for these projects. So I'm not actually thinking of any trade-offs like let's scale down a project. We haven't done that and we don't do that. What we're doing is trying to fit it in in the right years.

Okay, got that, thank you.

Yes, Commissioner Waters.

One additional question, I was looking at the slide that has seven million for environmental and ADA. Is that for schools listed or does that include schools throughout the district?

That would be for schools throughout the district. So it's not an individual project and that's a two-year sum because it's fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29 funding. Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay.

All right. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Good afternoon. Good to see you. I'm Chuck Scott with Vice President of Facilities for Wake Tech. And it's a pleasure to be here with you today to share with you a bit about our upcoming 2026 Workforce Forward Bond. The year's different but the name is the same as you may recall from four years ago when our colleagues here were standing before you sharing our vision for the 2022 bond and much has happened over the past four years with that and is continuing and ongoing with our expansion and continuing to work to meet the needs of the county and our growth and our workforce. And so what we're sharing with you today is what's coming up in our planning and our strategy for the upcoming This bond request is about half of what we did previously in 2022, seeking to really maximize, be as efficient as we can with the money that we're asking for, being as strategic as we can, and coming off of a period of probably the last decade of tremendous growth and expansion of our campus locations across the county, and doing a bit more tightening of the belt and tightening of the suspenders to try to see what we can do to better look ahead and more strategically look ahead at what we can do with our existing facilities and really continue to meet the needs of the county. So I'll be sharing that with you today. Dr. Rawls is here with me as well. He'll come up at the end for Q&A and some insight as well. As you know, you've probably seen this number. This is last year's number. We were serving 72,000 students. We've had some record growth over this past year, so we expect that number to be even greater. We just finished our academic year, so we're still gathering that data. but we do expect to see growth there. And in addition, in the coming year, even more, as you all know, the county's growing and the need for community college education workforce curriculum as well is growing. So we have over 250 programs and nine locations across the county. Some of these should all be very familiar to you. You all have been tremendously engaged with us over the years with really growing this footprint, making our facilities and our offerings accessible to the to the folks around the county many around the 540 interchange so and also some around 440 but these these campuses are vital for the for the workforce growth of our county and we also kind of have the 10th campus which is the online but that's not shown shown here and so you know why are we here um you know our our mission um really I'll read our mission for you. Our mission is to provide access to education that transforms lives through economic mobility and personal fulfillment. So that's why we have nine locations. That's why we're scattered like we are. Our vision is to reach students in every part of wake county and rally around them to go as far as their dreams talents and resilient resilience takes them and so we're here to help support that and that's why that's why we're scattered where we are and to be able to meet those needs You may have seen this a few years ago, but it's still worthy of noting that in 2022, we were noted as the top 20% of colleges for student ROI and the top 10% in North Carolina. So really, this is a place, Wake Tech is a place where students can quickly tool up at a low cost and get into the workforce and begin careers that will provide them economic fulfillment and economic mobility. Huge for our community. And at Wake Tech, we have worked hard to generate over a billion dollars a year for our local economy and graduates earning 10,000 more per year as a result of that. So it's a big program. So what I'd like to share with you today is looking ahead at what are our Workforce Forward 2026 bond projects to help get us there. So as my colleague with the school system shared, our bond is part of a larger seven-year capital program. I had the privilege of sharing that with you back in May. So this presentation is very much targeted toward just the upcoming 2026 bond, which will be allocated, appropriated over the four years. And here are the high points, and really this bond is focused on expanding our training capabilities in public safety, skilled trades in healthcare, and renovating, I mentioned before, renovating and updating, modernizing our older buildings and infrastructure throughout the college footprint. And speaking of that footprint, I did wanna share a few statistics, because it helps us understand the scale of what we're talking about. We have over 500 acres at these nine campuses, over 50 buildings, 600, over 600 classrooms and labs and around two and a half million square feet is what we're taking care of with this at the college. So this is, it's a big program. And I'll get into it in a minute about some of our other equipment statistics, but these are the projects that we'll be looking for. So spending $41 million in expansion of our programs, You'll see a $65 million for our Southern Wake campus. Southern Wake campus is our original campus and our older facilities, so we're seeking funding to put money back into some of those older buildings to help update those. Campus-wide renewal of capital infrastructure. buildings and equipment, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, all those things, and we'll talk about that in a moment. And then for the first time this go round, we have a section of what has previously been cash funded will now be in the bond, which is our miscellaneous capital renewal for our IT infrastructure, minor capital, and renovations. So I'll touch on each of those. The reason we're doing this is really, as I said, to expand public safety, to expand our automotive and skilled trades programs, expand healthcare, particularly dental hygiene and dental assisting, and then invest in our aging buildings and infrastructure. expanding the jobs that keep us safe and healthy, expanding the jobs that keep us running, and then expanding or modernizing and growing our programs within our existing facilities to try to maximize the utilization of those facilities. So the first project that I'd like to highlight today is our Teaching Center and Apparatus Bay at our Fire and Rescue Training Center. So our Fire and Rescue Training Center is at our East Wake campus in Wendell. It's under construction right now from utilizing previous bond funding. With that construction that's underway now, we'll have a six-story training tower, we'll have a five-story burn tower, vehicle extraction pit, propane gas fire training pad, fire engine drafting pit, and several other appurtenances around the site. And we also will have a bathroom and shade structure. What we do not have is this building, and this is a teaching center and apparatus bay that we're seeking to build. to provide 14,000 square foot of air conditioned facility that has classrooms, simulation labs, decontamination lab, a flex lab, sim equipment, and a three apparatus bay for fire engines and fire trucks. So that is a much needed facility In addition to this site, once we start utilizing it and beginning classes and training there next year, we do anticipate the need to have this teaching center and apparatus bay up and running so that we can continue to train our firefighters and rescue personnel. Our automotive programs are growing quite a bit as well, particularly at our Northern Wake campus. You recall the Hendrick Center for Automotive, that's Hendrick Automotive Center. That is already ready for more growth. At the time that we moved in, we had 100 students. Now we have 500 and a wait list of 100. And so there's a tremendous need there to grow our training at the Hendrick Automotive Center. Particularly for this project, we are going to be partnering with Mopar, which is your Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, as well as the Mazda Mast program, and growing our electric vehicle program. And with the growth of all those programs, we need more cars. And when you need more cars, we need more places to store those cars. And with a limited footprint there, we're looking at some tri-lift vehicle stackers that can allow us to store 30 vehicles, all will be donated through various partnerships, and this will allow our students to work on these new vehicles, expand our programs into these brands, and continue training our personnel with those. So it'll be a project to expand our vehicular parking. There's a picture of one up there. one of those stackers also covering our existing parking much of the time when our when our students are working on vehicles they they have them apart enough where when we take them back outside to store them they're exposed to the elements so but we need to leave them apart for the next training and so we would like to provide some covered parking out out back where we're doing all this vehicular parking to continue to maintain those assets and keep them keep them in good working condition And then electrical vehicle charging stations, those are part of our growing electrical vehicle program in partnership with the community college system that is gonna be starting up. And so that's a partnership that's part of their curriculum improvement project and we're a host site for the electric vehicle program growth as part of that as well. So a lot happening there at the Scott Northern Wake campus for automotive. Also, we have a tremendous need to grow our skilled trades, particularly in welding and electrical and HVAC. Continuing, as you know, in our industry, especially on this hot July weekend, we are in desperate need of skilled trades to keep our facilities running. And so our programs need to continue to expand. Welding, specifically, we're at about 300 to 400 students on any given semester. with about fifty to eighty on a wait list so we have a need to grow our welding program into additional welding labs and with that comes a lot of infrastructure power obviously and then also ventilation and so these this and we also need to do this with our electrical program in partnership With Siemens, we're doing, we have a need to grow that program tremendously and expand that program. So these projects will be, this project will be critical for that growth. HVAC Technology Labs as well. We have some, but again, the program is growing and in need and there's some relocation that needs to happen to affect the other two projects. And all of this, as I mentioned, is a lot of ventilation and cooling, which is heavy infrastructure. So this is an exciting project at our Reedy Hall building at the Southern Wake campus. And so we would love to grow that program to really respond to the needs for welders, electricians, and HVAC mechanics. Then at our Perry Health Sciences campus, as you know, we're building our new simulation hospital. And what will happen with that is we'll have a lot of new space in the simulation hospital, but some of our spaces at our existing buildings will move, some of those functions will move over into the simulation hospital, which will free up some space in some of our existing buildings at Perry Health Sciences Campus. And we want to take advantage of that vacancy and expand our dental hygiene program with really a three-pronged approach. This program is really, there to strengthen our dental hygiene and dental assisting programs by expanding our instructional capacity and maximize and modernize our learning environment. So we have an immersive dental lecture lab that we're targeting. This will be a classroom, a stadium-style classroom like this with a dental chair up front and an instructor. to do simulated training there with a large class. Growth of our dental simulation labs, growing their capacity from 15 to 30, so doubling the capacity of the dental simulation lab. And then in our dental hygiene clinic expansion and modernization project, increasing that student population or capacity to teach from 24 to 33. So about a 30% growth there in our training capabilities. And with this, we really believe that we can meet the growing demand for dental hygienists and dental assistants. It's a very good program. Both of those are great programs, but we need those facilities to continue to match the growth that the county needs. And then lastly, what I would say is this project, as far as expansion, strategic expansion projects, is we hope to do some programming. We'd like to do some programming for a second building at our new Western Wake campus that we're currently designing right now. that will be already from previous bond funding. We're designing and we'll ultimately build the building A there, but what we will be wanting to do in the next bond is the programming for a second building with a real healthcare focus. We anticipate, obviously, the growth of healthcare in our region, particularly with the Children's Hospital in the southwestern Wake County, but also just the general growth of healthcare more broadly across the region, an ongoing need for ongoing healthcare capacity, training capacity. We think this is strategically placed in the bond sort of towards the end of the bond period. With that pushing out towards the end of the bond period, we'll have been able to spend a few years with our new simulation hospital, see how that expansion has helped meet the demands of the county in terms of healthcare training. hopefully what we'll see happening with NC Children's in the southwestern part of Wake County, we'll see the growth of that and sort of that will materialize into something a little bit more definitive and then we can begin to see where Wake Tech can step up and meet the needs for growing industry training for healthcare across the region. So that's just programming and then the plan would be to seek funding to do the construction of that second building in a future bond. So that's sort of looking outward and expanding programs. We also are looking into the money that we were asking for, the bond funding we're asking for, to begin doing some more renovations in our Southern Wake campus, which is our oldest campus. We are currently doing some in our student union. We're designing that now. This is a look ahead at future projects. future projects these are large formal capital construction projects that blend programmatic renovations and expansions with the need to upgrade our buildings and infrastructure to modernize those and make them more reliable more resilient uh... upgrade them uh... to to more modern standards and modern codes so the priorities for that will be the buildings that take care of our diesel and heavy equipment program our construction management engineering and architecture program so engineering technology and then our our library which houses our eagle cast or which will house an eagle cast teaching studio resource center and some classrooms and labs and just student services and student resources spaces so that's this that's going to be the focus of the of the of this portion of the upcoming bond so really again maximizing our utilization of those those existing facilities at our southern wake campus And then we have our campus wide capital renewal of our mission critical assets across the college. These are the behind the scenes systems that most of us don't really notice most day to day until it's not working. So our HVAC, our HVAC controls, elevators, electrical, paving, access control and security systems, ADA upgrades, lighting systems, fire alarm sprinkler systems, all the infrastructure systems that keep our buildings operating reliably and safely. This is an ongoing effort for us to try to continue to work through replacing these systems and keeping them updated. And it's important because here's the stats. We've got 202 air handlers across the college, 35 chillers, 50 boilers, 45 elevators, 50 plus roofs, 75 parking lots, Over 10,000 parking spaces. So as you can imagine with a program that large, our goal is to continue each year and not defer, but continue each year just chipping away at those projects to keep those systems upgraded and replaced. And so this is the money that we're requesting in the next bond to continue that program. It's a very robust program, very large program with a lot of equipment, but very important for us to maintain a good pace as we continue to go into the future. It's not one of those that you want to stop, wait 10 years or 20 and do them all at once. So we want to pace ourselves. This is how we're doing that. And then finally, this is the piece that you may have seen in previous bond years or part of our capital program that's formally cash-funded. So this year, this bond cycle, the plan is to bond fund it. And this is for our IT infrastructure, our minor capital, and our informal renovation project. So our IT infrastructure, think of it as the hardware, the physical assets related to our information technology systems at the college. The software side, licenses and all that is covered out of our operating budget but this is our i t infrastructure the servers that you u p s systems wife i've got wireless access points redundant rings and disaster recovery sites of one goes down we can continue to keep the network up and running cert servers that run our enterprise software and our cyber security all of those pieces in our network switches so this is all that hardware running behind the scenes keeping the network up and running because as you know networks age and networks are under attack and a lot of threat and so thanks to the support of the county we've been able to continue to maintain a staffing level to keep up with that maintain good software licenses and maintain good equipment to keep wake tech's i.t systems up and running because when the i.t systems are down education and instruction is down and so keeping that up and going is very important for us minor capital is our everyday replacement of our lifecycle replacement of our vehicles and equipment and furniture throughout the college. We have two and a half million square feet, most of which has furniture in it, and so we're continually working to keep that furniture updated. And then our informal renovation projects. We do about 10 to 20 renovation projects a year, small projects. These are really targeted projects that are nimble, really working to, that are there to react to the responses, our response to evolving trends in industry and really tailor our instructional environments to build the labs, applied skills labs and simulation labs. very quickly with small renovation projects to enhance our work environment, I mean our instructional environment for the students. And so we do that, like I said, 10 to 20 projects a year, roughly, smaller size, 50 to $100,000 projects. So together, those comprise about six million of that 22.7. So that's a lot to take in, but it's a big program, and again, the real goal of this is to meet that growing need across our county for ongoing training, both workforce and curriculum training to maintain and operate reliable, resilient building systems that keep us running and really meet the growing needs of industry-specific training for the county as we continue to grow. So with that, I'll pause and we'll take questions.

Thank you. Commissioners, any questions? Commissioner Adamson.

Thank you for bringing this forward. What is an Eagle Cast Lab?

Eagle Cast Teaching Studio.

Yes, what is that? I knew what everything else was but that one.

It's primarily the way in which our instructors can go into a particular space and be able to use all the different types of technology in broadcasting or developing course material for that. So it pulls together all the technology that they would use in creating that kind of.

It sounded like theater, but I couldn't decide. Thank you. And I'm really excited to support this bond because I know your buildings, you know, the more students we get in your buildings, the more benefit it brings to the residents of Wake County. And they pay for themselves multiple times over.

Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Thomas.

Thank you. Good to see you, Dr. Rawls. I appreciate the tightening of the belt remark that you made at the beginning of your presentation. And so to that end, you told me all the things that need to be done. Tell me some of the things that you might not be doing so that you got to this number and how you prioritized.

Just as an example, so for instance, we are exploding in skilled trades right now. It's a wonderful thing. biggest growth we've seen in years and years and so as an example this will allow us to go into some of our labs in reedy hall and renovate to expand out hvac to expand out electrical to expand out welding we announced just a couple weeks ago a really exciting new program that will be partnered with wake county public schools funded by bloomberg we need to you can't teach those types of programs in just a classroom you have to go in and do that ideally we would like to expand to north campus and do expansion of some of our skill trades labs there as well but there's not enough you know and looking at the mix that was an example of something that we'll have to forego to another another bond um but that's that's an example okay

Thank you. That's helpful. You talked about the 500 acres and the 600 classrooms and the 2.5 million square feet, but you also started talking about the 202 air handlers. Can you give me those numbers again, the air handlers and the chillers and all of those fun things? Yeah, that's what I want to know.

so 202 air handlers so and don't picture the size of your at your house right some as big as this this this podium here or this desk here um air handlers 202 air handlers 50 chillers 35 let me well now you're going to quiz me 35 chillers 50 boilers and then we have pumps and elevators 45 elevators and growing as i'm not counting the buildings that are under construction so we got even more coming

Okay, very good. That's very helpful. Puts it in good context for me. So I'm just wondering, you talked about deferred maintenance and how you try to make sure that the maintenance is done at a good pace. Can you tell me a little bit about how you do that, how you track that so that you know and you don't get behind? Because you do have a lot of... equipment to monitor and maintain.

That's right. So we have a program by which we prioritize based on age, condition, part obsolescence for, say, chillers, air handlers, the larger equipment, even elevator modernization. So we look at it. It's a blend. We look at age, but not just age. We look at age, condition, the frequency of failure, the mission-critical aspect of that particular asset, what would be the what would be the impact to the organization if that one failed. Not all air handlers have the same impact if they went down. If it's an air handler for one that might serve a few classrooms, that might be different than if it's serving a server room or a data room that's housing a very critical, mission critical equipment. So it's a blended prioritization strategy for that equipment, but we do work through a list for each of those categories that I mentioned there. We have a list of projects that we know we need to do that are sort of in the red zone for whichever reason I mentioned before. Not red in that we're doomed to fail, but red in terms of priority one, priority two, priority three, and then we look through the funding that we have available and the staffing that we have available to manage the projects, and we try to get as many done of that category in that year that we can with the available funding, and then we prioritize what we push out to the next year.

You said there's a program that you use to do that? Is that a software program?

It's not a program like a software program. It's our own internal methodology for doing that.

One thing, it's not a swag. I know this has come up before. We've presented, I think, informally to you all before a little bit about our maintenance process. We think that's important to us because it does, as Chuck indicated, we don't get into this issue of Pay me now, pay me later when something breaks. And so I think one of the things that, thanks to your support and the support of the county, we have been very diligent about handling our maintenance as it goes along. And I know previously Chuck's predecessor has made the comment, he wouldn't take this job before if he didn't know there was such a strong maintenance program. So I think it's something that we're proud of, but we're thankful because your support of us has allowed us. And the discipline of Wake Tech has kept that moving forward so we don't get into issues.

Awesome. Thank you for that, Dr. Rawls. And I don't have any more questions. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the partnership. Thank you for the work that you do. The 66 people a day that are moving here and the economic development announcements that haven't happened as frequently this year as they've happened in the most recent years, but you all are an integral part of that. And so thank you for the work, the partnership, and helping our community be able to ladder up and take advantage of all the opportunities that we're bringing to the region. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Thomas, Commissioner Stallings.

Thank you, and I just want to echo my thanks as well for all that you're doing and especially trying to target all regions of our county, our big growing county, and just thank you for the opportunities that you're providing so many people with different backgrounds and ages and experiences. So just a couple of follow-up questions. With your skilled trades, and we've talked about this a little in the past, could you highlight a little bit more about the hands-on, real-world experiences, internships, practicums, apprenticeship opportunities that are being provided to students at Wake Tech.

I'll take that one. It's one of my favorite topics. But one of the things that's happened for us in the last three years has been just a boom in interest. So 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I'd frequently talk about the interest gap that existed. We had the jobs. We had the programs, the instructors, but too often our labs were 60% full. Now we get to the other side where we have waiting lists. That's terrible to have waiting lists, but it's also wonderful to see that kind of interest in areas that truly have not had the demand they need given the opportunities that are out there. When you look at our priorities in terms of what we call workforce forward, our capital priorities, we talk about three buckets of jobs. The jobs that allow us to grow and be prosperous, and you've helped us so much with that. That's a lot of what we've been doing now within biotech, within advanced manufacturing and those areas. the jobs that keep us safe and healthy. We've talked about those, but then the jobs that keep us running, the technicians, the trades, the skilled trades. And so that's a big part, that's been a big part of what we've been able to do thanks to our county support. But now we have, we need to do even more. So a good example is in the, as you mentioned, HVAC and electrical. So we are now, just as very practical examples, we have 27 high school juniors that are or 27 high school students that are on our campus right now that are in an accelerated electrical program to help us meet the electrical demand so they're in our labs right now throughout the summer and we'll have a chance to grow that thanks to the seaman support we're going to be adding with the wake county public schools our youth apprenticeship program the wake works youth apprenticeship program thanks to the four four million dollars for bloomberg But to grow these programs, we have to have more instructors. It looks like our state has put some money into what we call Propel NC in terms of the budget proposal. We feel confident about that, but we have to move into labs that are electrical, that are HVAC, that are welding. One of the things that's going to happen on South Campus is some of the older labs that we've used for advanced manufacturing. our biotech lab our mechatronics labs will move out to our new locations that leaves opportunity for us to move into these labs and and and revitalize and to move them to become electrical labs and become hvac and that requires you know you can't just walk in and plug something in you have to there's there's utilization of that but it'll be really hands-on labs that will take place in that case The other examples that we mentioned were automotive. Thanks to previous bonds, we were able to build the Hendrick Center and move five-fold growth in students. At that time, we had approximately 100 student waiting list. Then 400 students later, we still have 100 student waiting list, which is a wonderful thing, meaning that there's demand by students for those technicians. We need lab space. one way to get lab space is to move cars that aren't being worked on at that time from those labs and so having the the verticality of storing that equipment as chuck mentioned we you know we already have programs with gm we have programs with ford and others we're going to add the christ mopar chrysler group we're going to add mazda but we've got to have a place to be able to more efficiently store cars so we can pull them out when we need them, and put them up and then get them vertical. So that's an example, but this doesn't happen, most of this work doesn't happen in classrooms. It happens in hands-on labs, and so that space is vitally important, but it also is not just something you just walk into any space. You have to plan for it, and it takes investment, both equipment investment, instructor investment. That's what we covered, but it takes the facilities and the investments that our county has made previously have clearly made a difference in terms of the growth of programs and growth of opportunities this time around you don't see as many freestanding buildings but you see us squeezing out even more primarily lab space to plus those numbers up as much as we can

much and then one other additional question with with the capital needs and the some of those infrastructure upgrades can you speak a little bit about how environmental stewardship is incorporated into this and what kind of priorities does that take in terms of your energy efficient energy efficiency or other environmental stewardship goals

I'll mention it just broadly, and then if you want to do more technically. But that's always been a fundamental for Wake Tech, and you've seen it in different ways. So some of the buildings that you have funded through previous bonds, a good example, I was listening, there was a story today in New York Times about geothermal. in terms of north carolina we we're the lead in terms of geothermal because of what we did at our eastern campus on top of that building that where all the water goes through and allows us to heat and cool the eastern campus is solar panels where we educate the future electricians and how to deal with solar panels so you know it's both how we maintain you know our facilities right now we're looking at creating a micro grid on these campus that will allow us to train for that but will also further help cut our electrical bill uh... when we design facilities you can look at the faulk center for building technologies or the energy building on East Campus, you'll see cutouts throughout the building because we train the people, educate the people who do the facility maintenance, who manage the heating and the cooling and the electrical systems. And so our facilities become not only the place where we are, Doing few you know futuristic things with respect to energy, but we're training the future technicians to address that same thing with Evie You know, so you saw in this, you know, we're adding Evie spots at North Campus But that's also because we have really emphasized electrical as part of our overall automotive programs Commissioner Jackson

Hello. This is, thank you for a very, excuse me, detailed articulation of this bond and what it would help to accomplish. Very compelling, very responsive. I can see the strategy and I appreciate the strategic goals and going into them a little bit more. Excuse me. My question is about getting the word out. I was a Wake Tech student. I would have a lot of school pride in the fact that it's growing and these innovations are coming. How do you typically share that this opportunity is potentially available to students and teachers and other folks in the Wake Tech community?

The biggest way we promote programs now that you may or may not see is social media. That is the primary way in which we engage with students. Our biggest challenge right now, though, I would say is not getting the word out. because as Chuck indicated, we've got a word is out and we've got a wait list in automotive, we've got wait lists in electrical, we've got wait lists throughout, so our biggest challenge right now is to expand both spaces but instructors to meet the demand that we see right now.

Can I just clarify? I meant what you're presenting, what's coming, what's possible with the bond.

Oh, how will we do that?

Get excitement about the potential of what can come if this bond is fulfilled.

I will be on the circuit meeting with everybody. I will be at the forums. We'll be doing everything we can. There's not a whole lot of... We don't have a whole lot of money in advertising for the bonds or any way. There's only so far that... I'm the only one that's allowed to actually go out and... you know, do that. So we'll do it as much as possible. And given some private resources we raise that can support it, but we'll try to maximize that as much as we possibly can. But there's, you know,

It's just really exciting. I hope that students are listening and that parents are listening and that, I mean, it is just very compelling what's possible. And appreciate you tightening the belt, metaphorically, but there's so much packed into this. And it's just great for our community college system, for Wake County, and just for the growth of these initiatives. So just appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

And I would just to say, add to that, you know we've done a lot of expansion and really building new buildings for many years. And as those programs have grown, we see the need to turn our eyes sort of inward to the existing buildings that we have, and I mentioned that before. There's space that we can, as these buildings come up and programs move out into these other labs, it really does free up some space in our existing buildings to really continue to do programmatic expansion, strategic expansion of the college within our footprint. And that's what we're really trying to do here, which is how we've been able to do that. So it's been the growth that we've done in previous years has paved the way for us to be able to come in and do that and look inward at more renovation projects and not as many new buildings. So thank you for that.

I look forward to more and more people thinking about what's possible with this bond. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions or anything from any board? Okay, thank you. Thank you. And then we'll move on to finance.

Thank you again, Chair and Commissioners. Again, as a reminder, today's request is the third of four required board actions related to this bond referenda process. This is the last required action before the actual referendum is held on November 3rd. Then we'll be back to you in December to certify results after the referendum has taken place. I'm not gonna spend too much time on this. You've just heard in great detail about this, but as we saw in the school's earlier presentation, their proposed $680 million school bond would support two years of school projects in fiscal years 2028 and 2029, and they fall into these three major categories. Total school capital needs for the two fiscal years, 2028 and 2029, totals 832.3 million, and the county proposes funding those needs with a combination of the proposed bond and 152.3 million of cash. Again, just saw a great detail and a great presentation by Wake Tech, their planned use on their proposed bond funding. And then their capital needs for four years, fiscal years 2028 through 2031 totals of $149.1 million, which the county proposes entirely funding through this pursuit of this bond. The estimated tax impact for the combined schools and Wake Tech proposed referenda is one half cent tax increase to be levied in fiscal year 2028. The annual tax increase to a Wake County property owner would be $5 per 100,000 of assessed value. For a home valued at $450,000, that would equate to about $23 increase on tax bill. And this slide was shared earlier this calendar year as we were just ramping up the very initial stages of this referendum process. But just as a reminder, you as commissioners can promote, encourage, and advocate citizens to vote and to consider facts about the referendum. But elected or appointed officials of government bodies and staff of government bodies cannot advocate citizens to vote for a referendum. This ties directly back to the guiding statute 153A-456 and limited use of public funds. Off to the right, the far right column, You see external organizations and for-profit organizations can freely advocate and promote voting for the county referenda. So ordered steps for today's request, you as a board will conduct a public hearing on the bond order related to the proposed $680 million school bond. Then you as a board will conduct a public hearing on the bond order related to the proposed $149.1 million Wake Tech bond. Then following the two separate public hearings, staff recommends the board adopts on second reading each of the two bond orders related to the proposed November 3rd, 2026 bond referenda, directs the adopted bond orders be published locally, adopts a resolution calling for the November 3rd, 2026 bond referendum on each of the two adopted bond orders, and then directs a notice of bond referendum to be published twice locally as provided in the Local Government Bond Act. So I am happy to pause for any comments or questions before we move forward into the public hearings. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments before we move?

Okay, I'm not seeing any, so thank you. And now we'll move on to the public hearing. Before we open the first public hearing, I want to remind everyone that comments during each hearing must relate specifically to the bond referendum. Comments on other topics are not in order during either public hearing. So at this time, I'll go ahead and open the first public hearing, Wake County Public Schools. Comments from any interested party? Anybody want to make a comment in reference to that? Not seeing any. Madam Clerk, you received any comments?

We did not, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. So at this time, then we'll go ahead and close that public hearing. Commissioners, any discussion or questions before we close this item? Okay. We would then go ahead to... Mr. Attorney, before I move on, Roger.

Yes, sir.

Do we need to vote individually on each one of these?

You can do them all together at the end of the second hearing.

Okay. I want to make sure that we was in our rights there. Okay, then we'll go ahead and open it up for the second public hearing. Any comments from anybody in the audience want to make a comment in reference to Wake Tech bond? Not seeing or hearing any. Madam Clerk, have you received anything in reference to Wake Tech Bond?

We did not, Mr. Chair.

Okay, commissioners, before I close this public hearing, is there any comments or questions that either one of you may have before we close the comment? We will go ahead and close the second public hearing. Okay, at this time, is there a motion to approve?

Chair, I'll make the motion.

Okay.

I make a motion that the Board of Commissioners, having held and hold a public hearing on the bond order related to the proposed November 3rd, 2006 bond referendum for schools.

2026.

What did I say?

Yeah, go ahead, you're fine.

Oh, excuse me if I misspoke that. November 3rd, 2026 bond referendum for schools and holds and having held a public hearing on the bond order related to proposed November 3rd, 2026 bond referendum for Wake Tech and having held those public hearings, adopts a second reading each of the two bond orders related to proposed November 3rd, 2026 bond referendum and directs the adopted bond orders to be published adopts a resolution calling for a November 3rd, 2026 bond referendum on the adopted bond orders and directs a notice of bond referenda to be published twice as provided in the Local Government Bond Act.

Okay, thank you.

Happy to second that.

Okay, so we have a motion by Commissioner Jackson and we have a second by Commissioner Thomas. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please say no. Not hearing any. Then the ayes have it. Thank you. Now let's move on to appointments. Thank you, Todd, and everyone that came forth and made the presentation this evening. Thank you. So Vice Chair Jackson, does the Board of Commission have any appointments to make to the Citizen Advisory Board of Commissioners at this time?

Yes, we do. There are several appointments to be made and I therefore move that the Board of Commissioners appoint the following individuals to the respective boards and commissioners. Starting with the Adult Home Community Advisory Committee with one reappointment of Kenyatta Johnson. Two reappointments to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, appointees Ike Wheeler and Lucius Jones. Two reappointments to the Capital Area Workforce Development Board, appointees Jerry Pedley and Courtney Holcomb, the private sector for Lee County. You all may remember that Ms. Holcomb initially asked to conclude her term due to scheduling conflicts. However, she's adjusted her schedule to maintain her service. We're very thankful. and is now able to continue serving as a member. Those are two reappointments. And we have two vacancies, the private sector, Johnston County, and community-based organization, Wake County. Moving on, we have one term completion of Jennifer Weiss with the Energy Advisory Commission and another term completion with the Fire Commission of Kip Padgett. And a few more. We have one reappointment to the Library Commission of Tony Keenan, two term completions, Lynn Edmonds, Member-at-Large, and Abraham Jones, Member-at-Large. We have three recommendations, Susan Golfhaber to fill the Member-at-Large seat vacated the seat held by Jessica Peacock, We have Michael Flood to fill the member-at-large seat vacated by Lynn Edmonds, and Kelly Turner to fill the member-at-large seat vacated by Abraham Jones. We have two reappointments to the Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee. Those are Sarah Martin, representing District 3, and Robin Hammond, the Soil and Water Representative. We have one term completion, Sig Hutchinson, District 6, one term completion for the United Arts Grants Panel, that's District One, Mary Petrich, and one reappointment to the Water Partnership, that's John Burt, the Agricultural Representative. And therefore, that completes, and so I restate my motion that the Board of Commissioners appoint the foregoing individuals to the respective boards and commissions.

Okay, thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second?

I'll second that.

Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Jackson and second by Commissioner Adamson. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, please say no. Not hearing any, the ayes have it and the motion is adopted. Thank you, Commissioners. Before we move on, Vice Chair Jackson, please let us know which vacancy will be coming up next month.

Yes. Okay. Okay, applications will close for these open seats on July 30th, and appointments will be made August 17th. We have one vacancy for the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, one vacancy for the Energy Advisory Commission, three vacancies for the Fire Commission, one that is a municipal manager, another that's cost share representative, and then the third, a nonprofit representative. We have one possible reappointment to the Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Financing Authority, one reappointment to the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, one possible reappointment and term completion for the Library Commission, one reappointment and one vacancy for the Open Space Parks and Advisory Committee, a District One vacancy for the United Arts Grants Panel, and one reappointment for the Water Partnership. That's it for August.

Thank you, Madam Vice. Now we will move on to other business. Commissioner, would anyone like to share an update from an advisor or regional board that you were appointed to? Yeah, Commissioner Evans.

Yes, thank you. A few things. The Campo Board and the Go Triangle Board at their board meetings in June did approve the FY27 Wake Transit Work Program. So in this fiscal year, we'll be providing $92 million of capital investment in our transit plan and $78.5 million of new and expanded operating investments. So we are moving in the right direction. Also, as a member of the Wake County Smart Start Board, I wanted to just go ahead and mention for people to put it on the calendars, there's gonna be a big shindig in September, September 26th, for the 30th anniversary for Wake County Smart Start, so more to come about that later, but hope you'll be able to join us there. And lastly, my service to the Central Pines Regional Council of Government, I'm happy to report that I was elected chair of that board and will begin my term serving that organization which has 50 delegates from various municipalities and counties around our region and I appreciate the confidence that's been put in me and look forward to continue to working together on regional solutions. throughout our region. And that term runs from July 1 to June 30 of next year. And that's all I have.

Thank you. Commissioner Stallings.

Thank you, Chair. Just a couple of items from our Wake County Health and Human Services Board that met on June the 25th. We had a really robust discussion on senior services. As we know as a board and many of our staff and community members know, our senior population continues to evolve and increase. And so we had some really robust discussions and presentations from our Wake County senior services staff, our resources for seniors, and also Meals on Wheels were represented. So we got a good update on the current resources and also talked about plans for the future and how we'll continue to try to serve our seniors residents in Wake County. And then secondly, we do have a veterinarian opening on the board. So if anybody's listening or knows any veterinarians, we would love to have that person serve. And if you know of someone, just feel free to reach out to me and I'll be glad to provide more information. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Thomas.

Actually, sir, my comments are for the other boards and commissions, not regional, if you're ready for that.

is there anybody else got anything for the regional okay we'll we'll move on to other reports

Outstanding, thank you so much. Just a few things. One, the Wake Transit Conference Committee, Commissioner Evans, you mentioned the budget, but the Wake Transit Conference Committee met and we no longer have to have a conference committee, so we are very excited about that. It's almost been three years since we've been having conversations with GoTriangle, CAMPO, and Wake County, so we are excited that we were able to move forward with those issues and that the budget was passed for GoTriangle and CAMPO. Also, I just wanted to mention that Congresswoman Ross has a new chief of staff. Her name is Meryl, and I've had the opportunity to meet with her, talk with her. She's in Washington DC, and a lot of the work that I do with NACO, Congresswoman Ross partners with a lot of the artificial intelligence and technology work, as does Congresswoman Foushee. So it was really nice to hear from her chief of staff and hear about the priorities. Lastly, the Governor's AI Leadership Council has concluded their work, our work. I served on that as the only local government representative. And if you go to governor.nc.gov, there is a strategic roadmap for state government and local governments around artificial intelligence. The last thing that I would mention, Chairman, is that I am very much in favor, although I understand that we cannot take a formal vote because there was nothing on the agenda in the notice published before this meeting, I would like to make a statement saying that I am willing to partner with the Wake County Board of Elections about other additional early voting sites. Thank you so much, Chairman.

Thank you. Any other comments? Yeah, Commissioner Stallings.

Thank you, Commissioner Thomas, for saying that about the Board of Elections, and I echo that sentiment as well. And just wanted to highlight that we had our Wake County Opioid Settlement Community Meeting on Wednesday, June the 24th, and this was just an opportunity to hear about the work of our opioid settlement work. And just as a reminder from the public, Wake County will be getting more than $67 million in opioid settlement funds This is over the course of 17 years. It's already started, started in 2022 and will go through 2038. And so the purpose of this meeting was to just give an update to the community on how the funds have currently been used and how they will be used in the next couple of years. and we will be targeting funding that's gonna address a whole continuum of prevention to early intervention to treatment and recovery for people dealing with opioid use disorders. So just a big shout out to Behavioral Health and to Alyssa Kittness who is our program manager for just really helping to accept applications from community partners who are doing this work and we are funding the work throughout that whole continuum of care. to try to help support those that we know that are dealing with opioid use disorder. Thank you.

Yes, Commissioner Anderson.

Yes, I sit on the Interact Board of Directors and we did have the meeting and we're still working on ways to get a new shelter. The current shelter is way small for the need and we're continuing to look at options and we're about to start a big capital campaign in hopes of raising money to be able to accomplish the goal of expanding the shelter and I would also like to say that I support looking at additional sites for early voting and if those sites don't change, I am supportive of additional funding in order to do outreach so folks know where they're at. Because I know I personally normally go to the same place every time and one of my volunteer jobs was in my community when they changed our our election day voting site i stood at the old one to direct folks where to go to the new one and it was i talked to people all day that just made immediately went to where they thought they belonged so um so i support that as well thank you commissioner thomas thank you for bringing that up yeah uh commissioner wardish

Thank you, Chair Miles. I want to acknowledge the Cosby Advocacy Group for their inaugural Juneteenth celebration and all the hard work that went into bringing out so many community partners and amplifying the history of our ancestors, so kudos. And I also want to lift up Team Wake members who, work on behalf of children in foster care and adoption. There was an inaugural walk as well in Nightdale to help raise awareness and do outreach to ensure that our neighbors are aware of the opportunity and the need for foster families. And so just wanted to say how much the dedication from our team means to see them out in 90 plus degree weather. walking to amplify such an important cause really shows the heart of their work. And also as a proud graduate of North Carolina State University, I appreciate all those that gave voice to the barriers that are being placed that make it harder for students and others to access the ballot box. And so I stand in solidarity with my colleagues who are in support of making sure that we increase opportunities for access to early voting sites. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Jackson.

Yes, a couple of things. One, to first acknowledge over the weekend all of the 250 event celebrations and right here in our own backyard, Holly Springs celebrated 150 years and it was good to be out there celebrating with them as well as following the stories, they're collecting stories. So any of you all that have been around and they're even welcoming the newer folks like me that have come to be a part of contributing to the story of such a significant celebration of the start of Holly Springs. I want to acknowledge the Women's Center on their ribbon cutting. Congratulations to them on having a new location. It just represents the growing partnership and the strength of the nonprofits in our community to be able to have a bigger space for the people and women that they serve. I just want to also acknowledge I had the pleasure of attending the opioid community meeting and just want to underscore that you know you go to a lot of places and they say we want to hear from you but I can tell you that community wants to grow wants to double it was a pleasure to be there with you Commissioner Stallings and it would be wonderful if the next time we host that the community meeting where we get to weigh in and professionals you know folks like Amy at the Women's Center and other nonprofits are able to really create what these opioid settlement funds can do for our county. So just another plug to get involved with, and you can sign up. Can you wanna just say, what's the thing? Oh, maybe you don't know. Go to the website, but it is readily available there. Yes, it would be readily available at the website. Sorry, I couldn't think of it, but I was so excited.

Shout out for that, all that, but I know it's, I know Alyssa Kittness is our program manager and it's under the behavioral health.

Yes, I just left so excited and so pumped for what they're going to be doing. And I just want to, two more things, acknowledge that Passage Home had a wonderful celebration last Friday, acknowledging all of the folks that have successfully completed their program. These are our neighbors who are reentering society or bouncing back and need any kind of help and to be able to be in that room and hear the stories of folks that literally say that passage home was life-giving for them is just amazing so i'll wrap up by saying that i also support our willingness to be partners with the board of elections and as they reconsider what community has been saying and what they've been hearing and the demands for folks to support my colleagues and a message to our Board of Election colleagues that we wanna be partners, that we wanna be responsive to our community, we wanna make sure that there are zero barriers to participating in the civic responsibility. So thank you Commissioner Thomas for opening up that conversation and I'm happy to support that as well.

Thank you, good. Commissioner Jackson, Commissioner Davis.

Yes, and I wanted to add my voice to that conversation. It's certainly important to me that our NC State students have easy availability to vote, and I'm interested in working together with the Board of Elections, other folks in the community that I've heard about that are trying to work on this issue, We just weren't able, because of timing and everything, to take any specific action today, but wanted the folks that were advocating for help to know that we understand the concerns and are interested in trying to help work for a solution. Thank you.

Any other comments? Yes.

I have the website for the opioid settlement. If anyone's interested, it's wake.gov forward slash opioid settlement. That's where all the information is.

That's really simple.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. I did research. Any other question or comments? Not seeing any, then I'll go ahead and make a comment. First of all, I want to thank my colleagues for supporting the resolution for Dr. Purcell Robinson. For those of y'all who don't know, he was the longest serving president for St. Augustine's College. Matter of fact, he was there for right at 25 to 30 years. as president, but prior to that, he was also a student at St. Augustine College. So I think it's appropriate for us to recognize and remember him, so I appreciate your support there with that resolution. And lastly, as someone that served on the Wake County Board of Election, of course, it's always important to make sure we provide every citizen the opportunity to vote, and that's what this is all about. So again, thank you, colleagues, for your comment. And at this time, Mr. Askew, is there a need for a closed session?

Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. The motion is going to be called for the following purpose. To prevent the disclosure of information that is privileged or confidential pursuant to the laws of the state, and particularly NCGS 131E-97.3, or not otherwise considered a public record within the meaning of Chapter 132, all pursuant to NCGS 143-318.11A1.

I'm happy to make the motion referenced by the county attorney for closed session.

Thank you, Commissioner Thomas. We got a motion. Is there a second?

A second.

We have a second by Commissioner Jackson. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please say no. Not hearing any motion. Okay, we are back out of closed session. We do not have anything to report at this time. So thank you, everyone. And that concludes our agenda for today. The board's next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, August the 17th at 2 p.m. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn.

Second. Aye. Aye. Aye.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Aye. Ayes have it. Meeting adjourned.

Okay, wait.